F For FearLess

Fear is like that negative friend who is always there to tell you why you cannot be who you want to be, or you cannot do what you want to do, that friend who is always reminding you of your past mistakes and failure and uses them as a way of pulling you back instead of pushing you forward. 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that friends who tell you “DON’T” are negative. If their “don’t” is coming from a place of love and not from a place of jealousy and all her cousins such as resentment, discontent and covetousness, then by all means listen to them.  

By the way, did you know that the more you entertain fear the louder and stronger its voice becomes? The reverse is also true. The more you ignore fear, the weaker and quieter its voice becomes and as you continue ignoring it, the less fear you have, eventually you become FEARLESS.

To quote my usual online dictionary, “Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. Rather, it's the mastery of fear. Fearlessness is about getting up one more time than we fall down. The more comfortable we are with the possibility of falling down, the more fearless we will be, and the easier our journey will become”.

So, how can we become Fearless in the midst of COVID-19 and beyond?

• Identify the source of your fears – what I have come to discover is that sometimes your fear is completely baseless. Listen to my podcast on F for Fear for a perfect example of how baseless fear can be sometimes. Like the saying goes, FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. At this point I'd like to encourage you to take some time to list down all your fears and then identify where each fear come from.

• Eliminate the source of your fears – for instance right now I know many people are living in amplified fear because of COVID-19, aka Ms. Rona. What I came to discover from my own personal experience is that the more you feed your mind with negative information about the virus, the more you panic and give fear room to start talking to you and convincing you that you are next. Right now when someone gets a headache or they sneeze or cough, the first thought that comes to their mind is that they already have the virus. Come on guys, don’t let fear make you its slave! Headaches, sneezing, coughing and flu were all there before Ms. Rona showed up with her lethal self. Instead of entertaining her, calm down and focus on boosting your immunity through eating right, exercising and avoiding panic by feeding your mind with the right stuff. 

• Speak positive affirmations upon yourself – the thing about affirmations is that you cannot affirm what you don’t believe. If you can’t first see it in your mind you will never see it in reality. If you can’t see yourself celebrating your birthday in 2021 then saying, “I will live long and fulfill the number of my days here on earth” is pointless. You must first see it in your mind and believe in your heart before the manifestation happens physically. This goes for everything else in life. If you can't picture yourself in that position you've been eyeing at your office, then forget that positiong completely because it will never be yours. You attract what you think, believe and speak about yourself.

• Face your fears one by one – yes! Sometimes the best way to deal with fear is to face it squarely. I remember how fearful I used to be of going to Zanzibar by boat then one day I decided to face that fear. The most interesting thing is that I was not even sea-sick! While other people were on the floor vomiting their intestines out,  I was comfortably drinking water and eating mihogo chips while watching Azam's Kilimanjaro VII creating foam as it majestically glided deep at sea. The moment I decided I was going to travel by that big boat, the fear of "boating" left me.

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I even have evidence of how I conquered my fear of "boating" right here!​

• Feed your faith, starve your fears – faith and fear don’t co-habit. If you choose to accommodate fear, then you can rest assured faith will vacate. If you choose to live with faith, then fear will take off in protest. My point is, you either choose fear or faith but not both. My favorite book says, “faith comes by hearing, and by hearing the word of God”. If that is the case, then I believe the reverse is also true. Fear comes from NOT hearing the word of God, which means you are hearing words from fearful sources. The more you hear the word of God, the more you are filled with faith, which brings hope. Question is, whose word are you listening to? Are you feeding your fear or your faith?

There are many other ways you can handle fear but the most important thing to remember is this; being fearless means fearing less and that can only happen when you choose to deny fear access to your mind and heart. 

Be fearless this season. Remember, feed your faith and your fears will starve.

Be ignited. Be inspired. Be influenced. Become the best version of your fearless self you can ever be.