Fear and Courage...

_{Shaan Johari}

Earlier today, I was on my way home and while walking down the street I could not help but overhear two friends that were having quite a heated discussion. It was not a quarrel or anything, but they were just hitting each other with facts and theories.

I did not engage either of them in any conversation, I just listened till I got to my house. But what they had been talking about never left my head. And even now when I am about to make a post on my blog, it is still resounding in my head.

And what were they talking about? The difference between fearlessness and courage.

Yeah, when I got the gist of their discussion I rolled my eyes as well, but they held quite a compelling conversation.

_{Kammeran Gonzalezkeola}

Now, fearlessness and courage are usually confused for each other, but they are as different as night and day. Being fearless is as far from being courageous just as being arrogant is as far from being confident.

Okay then, you may ask what is the difference.

Being fearless is never good. Because in life there is nothing that is a hundred percent safe, even in your safest moment something can come and change it all in a matter of minutes. What this basically means is that a person’s life is at risk most of the time. We spend our lives fearing those risks and the consequences if things do not go as planned. We fear failure, sickness, and death.

But then, with fearlessness, these things will mean nothing to you. Fearlessness causes a person to drop down their guard and hence become vulnerable. To be fearless is literally to be without fear, and when you are without fear you handle everything around you with kid’s gloves. Moments that should have been gone through carefully and with great deliberation would be rushed into without adequate planning. And this, more than other reasons, increases the chances of failure.

_{Kammeran Gonzalezkeola}

Courage is a different ballgame altogether. When you are courageous, it does not mean you have no fear. Not at all. Instead, while you do have the fear, you still do what you have to do regardless.

Why this is important is because fear can be the big difference between a good decision and a horribly bad one. When you are scared of something, you do not charge into it directly, that would be dumb. Instead, you would study it and figure out the best way to get the stuff done.

Fear makes you to step on the brakes and ask yourself questions, to know the real reasons you are doing it and if you will be better off without it. When you are afraid, you think of all the best ways the idea is going to work in your favor. You also think of the ways it could go bad and then work to prevent such an occurrence from ever taking place.

_{Lukas Hartmann}

Talking about this can take loads and loads of pages, but the fact is still the same. There is a huge difference between being courageous and being fearless.

A lot of the courageous men that we have read their stories through history were all scared at one time or the other but they did not let the fear hold them back. Instead, they worked around it and were finally able to conquer it.

So, which one do you think you have more of? Courage or Fearlessness? The answer you have to that question will determine the kind of person you are in life and you will know if there are some changes that need to be made. Feel free to let me know all about it in the comments section.

_{Tobias Bjorkli}

Thank you for reading, till we meet in the next post.

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_{Borderimage credit: @deimage.}