Fearfulness is Selfishness

(Disclaimer: the way this article is written and structured requires that you read it in its entirety, in order, and to the end. The purpose of this article will not be clear to anyone unless they see the holistic, big picture on the other side ;) )

The most selfish thing you can do is deny the rest of the world the best possible version of yourself.

Complaining about lack of resources is not an excuse.

Complaining that “You don’t know how” is even less of an excuse.

If you have time to complain, that means you have time to think, which means you have time to behave intelligently.

The greatest tragedy is when people who are completely capable of offering more intentionally decide to live as less-than-their-best, simply because it’s easier and more immediately satisfying.

Most of the time, however, what we label “easy” and “satisfying” are merely symptoms of the root issue that is:

“I’m scared, and I’ll do whatever it takes to avoid experiencing X – even if it means tolerating Y on a constant basis, which is in reality infinitely worse than experiencing X.”

Fearfulness is Selfishness

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” -Albert Einstein

If you avoid educating yourself, doing what’s hard, or striving for higher goals beyond doing what’s easy and instantly-gratifying – you’re successfully robbing people of the higher value you could be contributing.

The reason why this is selfish is because you’re choosing fear out of the preservation of your own emotional comfort, insecurities, and weaknesses instead of utilizing your strengths to help people solve their problems.

Most people do not think like this, and it’s unfortunately one of the primary subconscious blocks keeping people unhappy, stuck, and unfulfilled.

True happiness and fulfillment is a result of living your passion and delivering whatever that “work” ends up being directly to other people.

It does not matter if you’d make less as a painter than a store clerk. You will be infinitely more happy, because your intrinsic reward will be infinitely more fulfilling than anything you could buy with money.

This is the secret – do things which reward you intrinsically more than any amount of material compensation ever could.

Money will never, EVER be enough to satisfy you.

Money’s purpose isn’t to satisfy and fulfill you. It’s a tool. Believing anything else contributes to suffering rather than enlightenment and freedom.

If you think this is unrealistic, you’ve got a lot of work to do, my friend. This also explains why you’re probably cynical toward people who figure this out, live it, then try and help you achieve the same for yourself.

The best social conditioning is that which makes you believe the exact opposite of the truth, and this one might just be at the top of the list.

The modus operandi of people over here in the United States can be summarized as a computer program file : Consume_Assume_Resume.exe

Instead of educating yourself on a topic of interest, and then taking the initiative to base your life around serving from the highest place possible, you’d rather yell at kids across the ocean via a headset and Xbox live.

This does not imply that you have to spend thousands of dollars on a college tuition.

Neither is it implying that you need to drop everything in your life and switch gears overnight.

It does, however, involve the conscious and honest contemplation of the following questions:

If you have to do something for a living – why settle and default to what’s easy?

What exactly is it that’s preventing you from striving in the direction of your highest goals?

Do you dream of being a neuroscientist, but have somehow found yourself working retail? How are you doing anyone a favor by forcing yourself to stay in retail when you know damn well you’d make a MUCH better neuroscientist?

Aren’t there enough retail employees?

We need more high-quality, passionate, driven medical professionals now more than ever! What are you doing?! Put down that scan gun and go get some books! :P

If you’re going to have to work anyway, why not consciously choose the work you do on a daily basis?

Why does it matter if this takes years or decades to accomplish, since that time is going to pass anyway, and you’re going to be spending it whether you want to or not?

Wouldn’t it be nicer to be in a better situation a decade from now? Five years from now? Next year?

To avoid working on yourself because it’s too hard, uncomfortable, you’ve already got enough money to relax and do nothing, etc – is the mindset that’s perpetuating the majority of issues on this planet.

Everyone complains about “the system”, yet they willingly feed it day in and day out, because they’ve yet to master their emotional control over the impulses of fear-consciousness.

When fear is the driving mechanism for your choices and your life, you’re living unintelligently.

The Opportunity Cost of Living in Fear

Stop equating intelligence with prioritizing your survival first and foremost.

This is low-conscious thinking made even more appealing by social conditioning.

Go ahead. Keep chasing money for the sole purpose of having food to eat so you can stay alive to chase more money to have food to eat so you can stay alive to chase more money. See how spiritually and genuinely fulfilled you feel. Let me know how that program works out for you in five years.

Hint: if the past five years were lived that way, I’m willing to bet your next five years will be an exact symmetrical mirroring.

To allow fear to control your ability to choose and behave differently is very common, but it’s also not very intelligent in regards to the bigger picture.

You’re keeping yourself in a constant state of suffering by trying to avoid suffering in the first place.

If you’re already miserable, you’ve already hit the bottom. You can go no lower. You’re essentially a glorified homeless person.

Some homeless people have actually figured this out, and remain homeless because it makes sense in regards to how they contribute to humanity.

If you think a homeless person can’t provide value creatively because they don’t have a job or a residence, your thinking is incredibly narrow, dense, and conditioned.

You may have money and be able to pay your bills on time, but you lack in every single other area that life has to offer.

People who live consciously (make choices intentionally and deliberately from a place of non-fear), have a little bit of self-esteem, and trust their actions – see time and time again that survival needs are always there when they stop obsessing over “not dying” 24/7 as a reason for doing countless things they’d rather not be doing.

This will sound a bit sadistic, but wouldn’t you rather just not exist if your entire existence involves you constantly compromising your genuine values out of fear of consequence (typically from society) for choosing otherwise?

What kind of existence is that?

If you didn’t exist, you wouldn’t even have to deal with that conundrum.

But you do exist, and that’s why I’m writing this article at 4:45am on a Sunday morning.

We’re all here, and we all have something unique, powerful, and inspiring to share with one another.

Use the extremes of either/or logic to inspire and empower you to see the folly of your current position.

How would someone in your position with 1000x more resources behave? If you think that person would be an idiot for not traveling and taking advantage of life – then what the hell are you doing…?!

There are people with less resources than you, who would kill for the resources you currently have at your disposal. “You have reliable internet and electricity?!” And while it might seem like you’re being incredibly humble by bowing out and just living with what you have, in reality you’re committing the highest form of universal hubris, disrespect, and selfishness possible.

Any time you take action solely for the purpose of avoiding punishment or an unfavorable outcome, you’re behaving unintelligently.

Unfavorable outcomes are the norm when you’re on a path of growth and self-evolution. That’s how learning and growth takes place. Constant experience and refinement of choice. To avoid growth because of these things is the difference between merely existing, and actually living.

Unfortunately, “merely existing” is precisely what social conditioning teaches us. This is exactly why we have HUGE separation between the classes of humans of the world.

Sociopaths simply do not care about anything, which is why they will make it to the top of the ladder and stay there.

Poor and middle class folk are brainwashed with “values” that act as little more than fencing to keep them from leaving the yard.

This fencing is almost entirely psychological. You police yourself far more on a daily basis than any dishonest law enforcement person could ever dream of.

What we have here is a matter of people who don’t care at all about the right things, people who care too much about the wrong things, and a few people who understand this and transcend the entire issue.

The reason people fall into these two extremes is because fear is the prime motivator for both parties involved. Fear of losing control (those at the top), and fear of losing what little they already have (the bottom).

Fear has a very high opportunity cost relative to other emotional states. Fear will cost you time, money, and sanity.

Why aren’t you already working in a field you enjoy?

Why aren’t you doing work that actually inspires you?

Do you have beliefs that you can’t do this, that it’s unrealistic, or improbable given the state of the economy?

What would happen if you took one action for every fear-based excuse you came up with…?

Life is a Classroom and Playground for Growth, NOT a Personal Prison

You see, if it’s enough that people can push your buttons just by criticizing your weak spots – which you have complete control over – you’re forced to rationalize why you don’t strengthen them.

This is why everything in life is a lesson.

Just because some choices are more difficult to make does not in any way, shape, or form preclude or disqualify them from being choices.

This is a very big lesson in itself.

“Well, that’s not an option for me”. Wrong. It IS an option. Your fear is telling you it isn’t.

Every experience is showing you where the holes in your rowboat are.

You can either deny them, and convince yourself that you’re merely taking a deeper and deeper bubble bath rather than sinking – or you can cultivate courage and face and change them head on.

Alfred North Whitehead defined intelligence as “the apperception of pattern as such”. All this means is that intelligence is a product of pattern recognition. The more patterns you can see and correlate, the more intelligent you are.

For example; some people can see higher patterns of organization which elude most of the population, whom generally have no interest in them. These patterns are health, nutrition, and science. If you’re an intelligent scientist, you see the patterns which science is made out of.

If you’re not interested in science, everything just looks like an overly-complex jumble of random bits and pieces.

I would even take it one step further, and inject my own spin on what constitutes intelligence.

I’ve always felt strongly that intelligence is a product of conscious awareness (which technically still satisfies Whitehead’s assertions), and choosing NOT to succumb to something which could compromise your efforts.

In truth, there are no average people, only average choices.

People are amazing.

Their potential is unlimited.

It’s the unconscious snares of social programming and individual negative thinking that causes us to concretize our limits and experiences.

Nobody is actually stupid. They just make stupid choices.

Nobody is actually an idiot. They just choose and behave like an idiot.

Nobody is actually selfish. They just choose to behave that way, because that’s all they’ve been conditioned to know.

The key to correcting this imbalance is to reclaim your power and transcend the illusion of fear as soon as humanely possible.

This power and ability begins and ends within your own consciousness.

Become more conscious, and reclaim your rightful power.

When you finally accept and allow who you really are, that’s when you’ll stop feeding your fears, because you will BE something completely different entirely.

Wet cannot be dry.

Likewise, your true self cannot contain fear, because fear itself is the absence of true self.

The universal secret to removing the influence of fear is to realize it’s an obstacle illusion to begin with, and entirely a product of your current level of consciousness.

To progress and evolve your consciousness is to progressively diminish the presence of fear within you.

Just like Dorothy, you’ve always had the power.

Instead of tapping your shoes together, you need to tap your internal strength, willpower, and courage to reclaim your life and make it exactly as it should be: a living, breathing expression of your highest passions manifest in physical form, for the highest good of all.