Unfreeze Mr. Freeze.

“The lion's power lies in our fear of him.” – Nigerian proverb

So much of our experiences in life depend on what we feel rather than what we think. The way you feel affect the way you think. Our emotions more than our intellectual abilities, supply the information that we reliably rely on to act. Our emotions are adaptations for motivating our actions. In any given situation, your actions correlate with your emotional state. Thus when you perceive anything as positive, you act positively, likewise you act negatively if you feel negative about anything. Our actions simply follow in the footsteps of our perception.

Amongst our emotions, fear is one of the most prominent. Fear results from our uncertainties, our vulnerabilities, our insecurities, our personal traumas and our wounds. Within them, fear serves as a survival mechanism that keeps on the alert to pre-empt and prevent harm from coming our way. Fear enables us to sense an impending danger, whether real or imagined; and allows us to adopt a cynical stance in order to preserve our self or status quo.

However, it is also the nature of fear to magnify all the negativities that are associated with any situation. It invokes all the rejections, miseries and difficulties that could accrue when you take a positive action. Through that, it makes you doubt and then employs his faithful companion Mr. Freeze to immobilize your actions accordingly. Mr. Freeze steps in and dissuades you from willing taking any action at all. He makes you hold back and play it safe. But playing safe, is more dangerous than the risk of facing your fears. It prevents you from discovering your potential and the person you are capable of becoming.

By it nature, fear has become a great captain in the lives of many individuals. It has perpetuated dread in their minds and thoughts and even makes them feel fear in situations that are in no way threatening. Fear has frozen their creative juices and productive flow and they hold back for no good reason. On its own, fear is not as frightful as it has branded itself. But fear can prevent you from functioning as you ought to because he makes you afraid.

Being afraid and not discovering your potential is the worse disease you can contract. You become unproductive, uncreative and miserable. Remember that neither history, nor life has ever rewarded any being for playing it safe. On the other hand, every time you look fear in the eye and take a positive action, you melt Mr. Freeze’s hold on you. You become bolder and more confident about life. You learn to take calculated risks which have rewards hidden in them.

The majority of us connote looking fear in the eye as risky. We visualize it as scary and dangerous. Unfortunately, this is an age old assumption hard wired into our worldview by Mr. Freeze. When you fall victim to this belief, you fail to act. This gets you in a groove that lessens your effectiveness and shrinks your efficiency. You tune your life’s dial onto the ‘no-risk-whatsoever’ frequency. And in the process, you develop an attitudinal thesaurus that does not incorporate the ‘risk’ word.

However, when you risk and take a positive action in spite of your fears, you unfreeze Mr. Freeze. You become more positive about life and you climb a rung higher on the courage ladder. And each positive action unlocks a part of your potential and takes you a step closer to achieving your purpose on earth. Unfreezing Mr. Freeze is the only way to imprint a lasting and positive effect on your environment.

From this moment onwards, in spite of your fears, ask why, say what you are thinking, share your ideas and act on your dream. The insults and rejections will definitely come, but life will appreciate you better and fear will freeze at your presence. Ideally, it is better to be courageous and wrong (it gives you an option to learn from your mistakes), than to be afraid and never discover what you could have done. You must willingly come out of your frozen state in exchange for a life of glory and fame, for an opportunity to soar with the eagles and catch a glimpse of the beauty of the earth. It is time to step out and risk more.