Cure for Common Fear

I wanted to write a blog posting each day this week, but a lack and alas, yesterday was the day from hell, and I was up until 2:30 AM working. There were a lot of challenges throughout the day, I felt frustrated and was full of fear.

However things would change as the night progressed. Around 8:00 PM, I played a league racquetball match at the club I belong to in Vancouver, and after winning the match and giving my opponent some pointers, I had a revelation. A realization that the cure for common fear is simply sharing my knowledge and experience with other people. Focusing that thought a little more, having the confidence in the knowledge and experience that I have accumulated over the years and sharing it with the people that need or want it.

Last year, I had the opportunity to read "Strength Finders 2.0" by Tom Rath, and through the process of taking the test, my top five strengths were:

1. Futuristic: "You are the type of person that likes to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you...You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions."



2. Intellection: "You like to think. You like mental activity. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are introspective."



3. Input: "You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information -- words, facts, books, and quotations -- or you might collect tangible objects...Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting."



4. Empathy: "You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are your own. You help people find the right phrases to express their feelings -- to themselves as well as to others. You help them give voice to their emotional life."



5. Adaptability: "You live in the moment. You don't see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once."

As I reflect upon this list of strengths, the important thing that I learn is that all of the strengths require an ability and desire to share the results with other people.

For example, If I don't share my visions for the future with others, will those visions have an opportunity to flourish and come true? If I don't share what I am thinking about, how will I know that those thoughts and ideas impacted someone else? What if someone can learn from what I know? I won't know, unless I share my collections of information with people. And finally, sharing empathy and adaptability creates an environment of relationship, community and trust paving the way for life to flourish.

The true cure for common fear is to share that which has been given to you with others, and that is what I hope you take from this blog posting, a desire to share with you, what I know. It may seem incredibly simple and easy for you, but for me it is a life-altering attitude that needs to invade everything that I do on a daily basis.