Yoda Quote on Facing Your Fears

“Named must your fear be before banish it you can.”

Yoda

Beyond the Quote (123/365)

Many times we don’t even realize that we’re living in fear. When we find our comforts, we get comfortable living with them. It’s instinctual. It’s natural. It’s how we’re wired and what we’re drawn to. We’re living in a sort-of primal state of constant pleasure seeking and pain avoidance. Why wouldn’t that be the case? Who actually would want to seek out fear? Confront fear? Work to overcome fear? It’s scary! It’s uncomfortable! There’s so much resistance! You’d have to have a really good reason to do any of that.

One reason you might consider is that fear is a limiter. It handicaps performance. It prevents us from doing things that would help cultivate our full potential. Fear is like a magnetic force that tries to keep us pushed down into the smallest nugget of potential possible. We’ll call this, “the force of fear.” (See what I did there?) It’s easy to understand this force because we feel it every day of our lives! It’s the force that pushes us deep into our comfortable beds. The force that holds our butts to those comfortable chairs when there’s a scary opportunity right in front of us. The force that keeps those screens glued to our comfortable eyes. It’s the force that holds us back.

While this certainly doesn’t feel like good news, if you’re clever, you might be able to find the opportunity in this. If “the force of fear” is always trying to hold you back, then that would mean that our opportunity is always in the exact opposite direction. Like a reverse compass of sorts. The force is trying to keep you in bed? Do the opposite and get up and get after your day. The force is trying to keep your butt in that chair? Do the opposite and step up to the plate and accept the challenge when it’s there. The force is trying to keep that screen glued to your eyes? Do the opposite and put the screen away and interact with your world. This is what Eleanor Roosevelt was implying when she said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

It’s about doing the exact opposite—or at least trying to do the exact opposite—of what your thoughts (the force of fear) are trying to get you to do. The real power in this sentiment comes when you look more closely at the growth opportunities that lie on the other side of fear. What do you imagine doing if you were at your absolute peak? Reverse engineer and start taking steps towards THAT. Think you can’t become a good public speaker? Start speaking publicly to groups of people. Think you can’t manage a successful business? Start researching, planning, organizing, branding, and marketing the business you would start. Think you can’t get into the relationship you think you deserve? Start building up your feelings of self-worth, courage, and self-belief and consistently (but patiently) reach out to people who you are interested in.

An important side-note to this process is that you shouldn’t do EVERYTHING you fear doing—only the things that you fear doing, that you find yourself drawn to anyway. Things that you think would be cool to be able to do. Things that you would do if you had the courage, charisma, or guts. Those are the things to pursue. If you’re not interested in becoming a public speaker, then don’t worry about speaking on stages. If you do think it would be cool to run a successful business though, then you should start leaning into that process. You have to be honest with yourself, though, and call out your feelings for what they are—the force of fear can be tricky!

If you tell yourself you don’t really want to do something—is that really the truth? Or is that the fear talking? If you say you’re not interested in talking to that person—is that really the case? Or are you just nervous that you’ll get rejected? If you admit to yourself that you don’t want to start your own business—is that really how you feel? Or are you actually just scared that it will fail? You have to keep it real and you have to be brutally honest. What are your unique fears? Do you even know what they are? Have you ever actually put your finger on them and identified them for what they are within your mind? Most people are so used to living in that sort-of primal state of constant pleasure seeking and pain avoidance that they don’t even realize that their life is being governed by fear!

Here’s your task: Name them. Write them down and make them real. Be honest with yourself and don’t let fear of failure, inadequacy, or embarrassment hold you back from being true to yourself. What does your ideal life look like? What would be the coolest thing that you can ever imagine yourself doing? Being? Sharing? Write it all down. Then, write down what’s really holding you back from pursuing it all. What are you scared of? What do you have to lose? What steps can you take—big and small—to start pushing back against the force of fear? From there, the path is simple. Banish them by working hard every day to overcome them. Simple, but definitely not easy. Stay strong. Stay woke. Live your best life. You deserve it. Yoda thinks so too. May the Fourth be with you.

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This post became the introduction for: 46 Fantastic Quotes on Fear and How To Live Your Best Life In Spite Of It

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