Life is a roller coaster ride!
Anticipating the 'ride' your life is taking you on. It is so scarry thinking about what it will 'feel' like when you are on it that most people don't even get on and avoid it all together. It is the anticipation of facing the complete Unknown!
Then you are either forced to get on by someone or something else, or you choose to get on anyways, scared, but willing to take the chance because you might just have 'fun' on it.
For some of us even the possibility of 'fun' or 'happiness' is worth the effort of facing the fear. For others of us, it is almost too scarry to face, and we simply just don't get on and try it out.
Most of the time, if we get on the ride, immediately we will know if we made a good choice. We will either be glad we did it when we get off and are happier than we could have ever imagined...or we are saying to ourselves, 'I lived through it, but I'm never getting back on that ride again'.
Some roller coasters are wooden and very shaky when riding them. If we rode a jerky wooden roaller coaster before and hated it, we might be reluctant to get back on any wooden roller coaster ever again, even if others are telling us, its NOT jerky, its a smooth ride. Its almost impossible to convince someone that it will be ok, especially if they think it won't due to a past 'ride' on a different roller coaster that was wooden.
Some roller coasters look terrifying, but after conquering them, they are the easiest to ride and give us a feeling that we've never experienced before.
After spending 24 hours at an amusement park with about 30 different people of all ages and life experiences, it was amazing what I learned about the human mind.
I believe fear is a state of mind. Fear is real, but the mind creates the fear. Don't let fear be your tour guide. All you'll get to ride on are the safe kiddy rides...you'll miss the fun watching the rest of us ride, getting off with smiles on our faces, wishing you could have had the courage to do it.
I realized that when I faced my fear I was extremely happy and proud of myself for having done it. I wanted to get back on almost all of the rides again. The ones I didn't want to get back on, were due to a physical nature, not a mental one.
My oldest daughter took 20 hours before she got on a 'feared' ride. Afterwards, she was wishing she had done it a lot sooner. She felt like she missed out on the fun 20 hours prior...but she was sooo very proud of herself for just getting on and doing it.
I asked her 'what made you finally decide to do it'. She said, "there were no adults around, and we were kinda on our own in the park, and we were like responsible for ourselves getting our own drinks and stuff". "I thought then, that I had to do it".
I know she had trouble conveying in words to me what she felt...but I know what it she was trying to say. She felt like an 'adult' and she was already successfull at taking care of herself, so she felt a sense of responsibility to go on the ride and not dissapoint herself and her friends. She didn't have me to defend her position. She grew up at that moment.
Fear stops us from GROWTH.
Facing your fears is a true freedom for and from 'self'.
You are the only person who holds yourself back from being truely free and truely happy when 'fear' is a 'factor'!
