The Thing to Fear
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Many fear failure. But failure is a necessary part of life. Without the risk of failing, we will never learn to be prudent and there will never be a need for careful planning, for foresight. And without failure, we will never know how it is to succeed, because success is only meaningful when placed alongside and contrasted with the experience of failing, of falling short.
As Franklin D. Roosevelt had said, “The thing to fear is fear itself”. Fear paralyzes. It shackles. It hinders one from realizing his potentials, from achieving his dreams.
Fear kills. It snuffs out hope and it kills dreams. Like a bullet piercing the heart, fear stops dreams from beating, from feeding the soul, from inspiring you to aim higher, to aspire for more.
No, the thing to fear is not failing… it is becoming stagnant — that state when you no longer elect to move for fear of failing, and thus stop from becoming.
Life is a continuous process of becoming. You remove that process, and you cease to live. You allow yourself to be paralyzed by your fear, and you’d dare not move until you eventually become stagnant. You become stagnant and you begin to die — not physically, but spiritually. And that would be worse than death of the flesh.
(To Jenn and Nina — a summary of some of the things I told you last night at the Metro Gallery. Hope they make sense. Thanks for the conversation, girls. It was great.)
//Sherma E. Benosa
21 November 2001; 10:42 pm
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November 25th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
“Fear kills. It snuffs out hope and it kills dreams…..the thing to fear is not failing… it is becoming stagnant — that state when you no longer elect to move for fear of failing, and thus stop from becoming.”
Wonderful words and thoughts and truths
xhenry
November 27th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Hi Henry! How are you my dear friend? Oh, it’s been a long while since we exchanged ideas, since I’ve read your posts, since I visited my bloggging friends! I miss those days. I miss you guys…
I hope you are in the best of health, that you are happy and good!
And thanks for coming over. Just the other day, I’ve been wondering how you all are…
and if you still remember me.
Thanks also for the nice comment. I just put into pen a part of a long and fulfilling discussions I had with young friends… about career mostly and about life in general.
Take care!
January 27th, 2010 at 11:37 am
OMG, ate sherma….ngaun ko lang nabasa to!!!!!! i rhave major catching up to do, with reading blogs!!!!! Thank you…thanks for sharing a piece of your mind, understanding how we feel, and giving us points that we will be needing to survive in this. That was really inspirational…Jen has moved on na…and hopefully, when I feel like I have learned what I need to learn in here…I’ll fly away too, and do better, better things! *hugs!* bisita ka uli dito, and i know magkikita pa tau!!!:D
February 12th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Hi Sherma, still going through your blogs!!!
I love the way you express your inner self & the composition of your thoughts. I like the way how you put your thinking, the things that you saw, the words that you’ve read and the sounds that you heard into words - words that can only be meaningful when they were carefully thought about & put together.
Lhen xx