My Freaky Fears and how I conquered them.

There are 4 basic feelings - happiness, sadness, anger and FEAR. Today we will talk about fear.

I believe that inertia and its laws can explain everything in life. You counter inertia of rest by setting the ball rolling for yourself and you counter inertia of motion by stopping yourself from deviating from the chosen path.

Somewhere in the middle of this we start fearing failures. And inertia of rest or motion takes over. You want to keep things as they are.

Let me tell you my story of how I lost some of these fears.

First in life –

(1) I lost my fear of Junky Judgements after 2 seasons of attending Indian weddings and 2 years of MBA education. Lots of scrutiny from relatives and eager MBA grads.

Realisation –
(A) I discovered that judging others was a core part of my nature – and that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(B) I realise that the only real let down is when you fail to meet your own expectations from yourself.

(2) I have lost my fear of having to work for Bad Bosses after working in competitive Sales environments for more than 4 years now. There are good and bad people everywhere.

And you can become a good boss even if you don’t find one for yourself.

Secondly in Toastmasters –

(3) This one is for the “Ah-Counters “-

I lost my fear of Painful Pauses and Feeble Fillers in my speech when Hindu philosophy reminded me that after I close my eyes in this life, the next Filler would be 84 lakh species long. Birth and Death 8.4 million times before I get the human life again.

Now that’s a filler to be worried about. Umm – I could take a pause just to digest that.

(4) I lost my fear of the impact of Damning Dialects on my speech after I realised there are over 700 dialects spoken across more than 26 languages in India. If anything, let’s celebrate the uniqueness of our own version of the English language.

(5) I lost the fear of voicing my Own Odd Opinion after I patiently listened to a thousand others and figured that I made more sense than them.

Hence, staying quiet and keeping that voice confined inside – is not always the best idea.

(6) Yet the rule is not universal – there are always the fears of the Worrisome Wife and the Holiday-at-home Husbands.

A typical scene would look like this:

“This long weekend we will be seeing the sunrise and sunset from some exotic destinations: The Living Room Sofa, Different corners of the roof and even The Toilet Seat!”

The point is – whether in life or in your Toastmasters Speeches – let go of the fear of failure. Enough well-known people have failed enough times in Sports, Entertainment and even Politics – and yet made quite a good story for themselves in the end.

Somewhere above these fears of Junky Judgements, Bad Bosses, Feeble Fillers, Damning Dialects and Odd Opinions - it is time to write your Super Story.