How much time do you spend each day living with FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real? Given the current world we are living in with problems of: COVID, Political unrest, Unemployment, Health issues, Family issues, etc. there is a lot of FEAR out there. Listening to the radio while on an errand today, the talk show host brought up this FEAR definition and it got me thinking that there is FEAR in the different areas of our lives. We may not feel it every day, but it made me realize I spend more time with FEAR than I care to admit. Peeling back the layers of FEAR, I can see it does affect my Hiking, Personal, and Work life.
In Hiking, I’ve let FEAR affect me before and during hikes. How many times have we not gone on a hike because we said: it’s too cold, too dark, too much distance, too hot, I’m too tired, I’m never gone that distance, others are too fast, etc. While some of these fears are real, many of these FEARS we allow into our mind are NOT true. And then there is the FEAR we let in during the hikes. Starting up the Manitou Incline, I’ve let FEAR convince me that I’m not in shape and I need to take a break. [And once I take that first break, I’m now taking them every few hundred steps, instead of pressing on through the FEAR.] Or on other hikes, we tell others to “just go ahead, I can’t keep up with you”, convincing ourselves that their fast pace is more important than my safety hiking alone. [And I’ve been on both sides of this coin.]
In my Personal life, I’ve let FEAR affect family relationships and how I think others see me. During uncomfortable discussions with my wife, FEAR jumps out and I take the issue on as something that demeans my personal value, as I think I’m a failure, all hope is lost, etc. – instead of separating the issue from who I am as a person. Or during holiday times, I let FEAR creep in because all of my family members may not be there. And I think it’s because of something I’ve not done or not done good enough. FEAR then starts to affect the mood of the time I have with family members.
At work with unemployment, I have to guard against FEAR affecting my self-worth when I hear of others landing jobs or when I get my third offer decline of the day. And when we have jobs, we tend to let the little mistakes we make start to make us think that our skill set isn’t good enough.
We all have and will continue to see “False Evidence Appearing Real” trying to get a toe-hold in our lives and creep in. We need to fight this by watching out for false evidence and by looking at our hiking, personal, and work life to see where we have already let FEAR come in. As I’ve said in many Trail Tips, this is where you need to have a confidant, where you can discuss your FEAR with them and let them be able to tell you where you have FEAR that you may not even be aware of. Having fear of certain things is important to have in our lives. But FEAR is something that doesn’t belong anywhere in our lives. It’s time to identify our FEAR(s), call them by name and get them out of our mind set.
Al Andersen 