Although we are all traveling along on this
journey called life…it is a rare occurrence when I read something that captures
my life experiences, feelings and emotions as closely as this chapter has. Reading Man
Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood (Chapter 2: Fear: Beneath the
Façade) by Carlos Andres Gomez, I felt a brotherhood, an alliance with this
man. There are many sentences that
connected with me…”I was so afraid of everything”…”Because I had problems
learning to read, I was scared I wasn’t smart”…”I had spent much of my life
worrying about everything, overwhelmed by the most paralyzing fear…My heart
will just give out one of these days.” But
the most important sentence was, “as I started to move on from the fear of
death to the fear of being average.”
This sentence shot right through me.
Someone else had verbalized one of my greatest fears…being average,
being less than my full potential. I had
moved away from childhood fears of monsters, scary movies, and blood…toward
fears of drugs, not being smart, and illnesses…to unknown situations and
feeling out of control. But as I progressed
through stages of my youth, the one thing that continually came back into my
head was living a life of mediocrity.
Not fully living, being average was the worst possible outcome for my
life. A life wasted…a life of
unfulfilled dreams…a life of accomplishments left undone was my greatest
fear. So, I have placed that fear out in
front of me and made a conscious decision to confront it, to attack it with all
my energy and with a plan. What does
that look like? Making changes in my
path that aren’t always popular…following my heart and gut when I know it may disappoint
others in the process. I am relentless
in all aspects of my life that fulfill me.
I’m embracing every opportunity to live actively while pursuing my
passions, my dreams, and my goals. I am
true to myself and I am living with no regrets!
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