The Death of Fear

“Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever been excited for something, and yet hesitate because you fear that you won’t achieve the success you hope for?  I have just finished my first week of student teaching, and there are a few things that I learned.  Most of it concerns teaching ideas and organizations, but one thing I learned about myself is – I can do this.  I can actually be a great teacher.  Of course, people have been telling me that for years.  That I work great with kids, but for some reason it takes the act of doing something to convince me that I can actually do it. 

I grew up shy.  But yet, I am able to get in front of a group of students, and still teach.  It took me getting in front of a classroom to prove this to myself.  And now, as I finish up my last year in college, my greatest fear is not only being able to relay my lessons to my (future) students, but will I be able to organize my lessons and create effective and efficient lesson plans weekly and daily?  There is something apprehensive about looking at nine months and being forced to plan every day of the school year what you are going to teach.  And even though I’ve done small assignments while attending the School of Education, I still was nervous about this issue on my second day of observing my classes.  Well, at the end of the week, I have already made a unit’s worth of lesson plans.  Now I just need to put my notes together and get things situated by the time I start teaching…I’ve learned that I can actually plan out my lessons, and I will become more comfortable in front of the classroom.  But this still reminds me of life’s lessons…How much of what we want to do, we refrain from doing it, because we fear the failure of achievement? 

What are the dreams and hopes we wish to see?  What are the professions and career options we want to strive for?  And of all those things we hope for – we stop ourselves because we don’t believe ourselves capable of doing it.  There is something that I’ve learned about fear.  It is the lack of knowledge that gives way to our belief of inability.  Fear then convinces us that we should never attempt what we want to do, because if we do, then we might fall.  If we fall, we might get hurt.  If we get hurt, we might be so hurt that we won’t be able to get back up.  The thing about fear is that is lies.  Not just lying, but are lies themselves.  As I write this, I realize that I haven’t fully grasped this.  I’m sure there are other things in my life where I still have some form of anxiety, and fear failure. 

But true failure is never attempting at all.  And the truth is I might fall. I might get hurt.  You might fall and get hurt, as well.  But do we then just sit on our butts, sore and bruised, and stop hoping?  Do we stop dreaming?  Where fear might attempt to convince us of our security, the truth is that it robs us of living as we should.  Maybe I am just young and an idealist…Or perhaps there is something to this.  I know that other than lesson planning, there have been other things in life that I cried out, “I can’t do this!”  And after sitting down, shutting up my thoughts, doing the work – I found that I could accomplish the task.  And I succeeded in my work.  Things are always possible.  So let me be still, and know that I am fully able to do what needs to be done...and DO IT!

Yes, there may be mountains to climb.  And it might be a hard trail.  But it’s at the top of the mountain where you get the best view of the valley. 

I dare you to start climbing…