What do you fear the most, and how do you think you might overcome it?
I have noticed in these threads a recurrence of people mentioning how, because of the FIRST experience, they have either done things they never thought they could before, or done things that they were “afraid” to do.
Many of you I think, have faced and overcome fears of one kind or another this year, whether it be public speaking for presentations to potential sponsors, or perhaps even what may seem to some as a daunting kit of parts.
I have had a unique opportunity this past year, as I have faced and/or experienced probably the top five to seven items on my list of absolute fears that I thought I could not possibly survive. Now, on the other side of going through these experiences, I feel a distinct sense of liberation. Now that I know that I can go through the absolute worst and still have my soul and mind intact when all is said and done, there is a new sense of self and true courage. These fears no longer rule me.
So now I ask you; Now that you have had a season of facing and overcoming in the FIRST experience, what fears remain, and how do you intend to overcome them to become a “whole” person?
It’s all about, as Dean Kamen put it,
“Solution based thinking”
How will you apply it to your lives now? My gift to you is to simply ask;
What do you fear the most, and how do you think you might overcome it?
Rejection is my greatest fear… well, that and losing the people i love. but i am working on both of these slowly. Mostly the rejection one. i am doing this by purposefully putting myself into situations that i coud possibly be rejected from. I have a lot of potential for a lot of things and the more i put myself out there and succeed, the more i realize that when i DO get rejected, i can simply get up and try something else. it’s working pretty well so far.
My greatest fear is not knowing what’s going to happen in the future. There are so many uncertainties, and I have no idea what I should do to make sure it will work out the best for me. Because of this fear, a lot of times I find myself not able to decide what to do, so I choose to wait and see what happens instead.
The funny thing about this year is, I wasn’t even going to do this much with FIRST. I didn’t do much of anything during 6 weeks, and I planned to only volunteering at Sacramento and spectate the SVR competition. I ended up attending 4 regionals, being score keeper at all 4 of them, and score keeping at the Curie Field at Championship event too. See, I didn’t plan for any of these to happen, but it ended up working out really well. What if it doesn’t happen again?
I guess I learn to deal with things as they come across me, and try to make the best out of the situation. But what’s going to happen if I don’t get the break I had in the past years?
There are many uncertainties in my coming future, and it will probably be one of the greatest challenges I’ve ever been through. I just hope I can get through them some day.
*Originally posted by Amber H. *
**What do you fear the most, and how do you think you might overcome it?
**
I fear most that sig I see “FIRST kills mentors”.
My fear is letting myself do more and more and being overwhelmed.
I’ve had projects in the past that I am very proud of - like 4 years as a Catholic High School Youth Minister.
Projects that were successful and were a lot of work.
I am better at reminding myself to say no when I need to.
Commitment scares the heck out of me. I’ve been the team captain for my work’s Relay for Life team for 3 years now but I’ll never forget how I felt when I said I would help with the team and no one else volunteered so they said I was team captain. I spent the rest of the afternoon in my office sick to my stomach and near tears. But I adjusted (eventually). I think the only reason the relationship I’m in now made it past its first year was because he lived an hour away and I only saw him on weekends. We’re in year 8 now, not married and though I get flack for it from my family, I just don’t care, I’m not ready.
The only reason I joined the robot team was because I told Eric, (my other) that if he was going to do it a second year we were getting a cat (he’s allergic, but hey, he would have to deal). He convinced me to come to a few meetings and see if I liked it enough to join the team and forgo the cat. And of course I fell in love with it (I’ll have to get my cat another way). For some reason, the time I spend with the robot team doesn’t feel like a commitment, so I don’t panic over it. Odd, no?
Dealing with it? Avoid it when at all possible! Well, try to take it in little steps, or just jump in (and panic when no one is looking). I guess the best thing would to be to figure out why I fear it. Maybe one day…
I have this incredible desire to know absolutely everything that is going on. I don’t like making decisions unless I know whats going on from every side and angle, and I always like to know what other people think, first. It means when I make a decision, I always know I’m right, but it can be a major burden, too. Making a decision when I don’t know what’s going on scares the crap out of me. Now, I find myself faced with certain issues where I don’t know how someone will react to things I say or do, and it scares me. I want to do everything right and be liked, but when things are uncertain, it’s really hard for me just to go with the flow and let things happen.
This season i did a lot more than i thought i would. Being a freshman i thought all that i would do was screw in a few screws and let everyone else of all of the work. Then my mom and step-dad started talking about me taking a welding class, of course i thought that they weren’t serious. At the time i was in eighth grade, i was petrified of going to college for a class, i was so scared. I was forced to go anyway, all of the guys thought that i was older because i was going to a college class…my step-dad took the class with me and told them my real age, yup, they stopped flirting with me. Bummer, but in the end i learned a lot about myself and we got a mentor, who i consider a good friend of mine. I also welded the whole robot. I had to the frame over three times because they changed the design. I was so stressed out that i broke down into tears. Ugghh! It was great once it was over though. We went to Phoenix Regional, didn’t do to well because of our drive system. We then went to LA, fixed our drive system and we came out as finalists. We were so close! All of the girls on our team started to cry, because we wanted to win so bad, we had worked hard all year for this, and because of the excitement. We are a very emotional team. The weekend after i really started to not care that we didn’t win, because i got something more from it then a trophy could have ever done for me, i got myself. It helped relize who i was and where i wanted to go. My only fear now is drowning. LOL, that would suck.
I fear a lot. Probably, I fear more than any healthy person should, but I’ve always been very pensive and reserved and cautious about the things I say, the steps I take, and the risks they involve. I’ve never felt that there’s nothing to lose, but that everything is at risk at every moment. It makes me slow to make decisions, certainly, and maybe a bit egocentric.
Above all else, though, I fear that I’m going to fail the few people that might consider me a role model. I do everything with the truest intent, but sometimes, I falter, and my biggest fear has always been that in those times that I mess up, the people that I draw my strength from will lose their faith in me and my life and that they’ll leave me.
That’s probably a bit self-serving and selfish, I’d imagine. I guess that stems from another paralyzing fear – dying.
Everything I’ve done has always been with the hope of being honest and true. I’ve always concentrated so much on trying to keep other people happy that it’s nearly consumed me.
Someone once told me, to paraphrase slightly, “if they see what you’re doing, they might think it’s okay.” While the circumstances of that exchange were far from pleasant, and certainly not applicable to the subject that was at hand, the words aren’t without merit.
So, I guess, my biggest fear is just doing something that’s “not okay” that might lead another person to make a bad decision.
*Originally posted by D.J. Fluck *
**My biggest fear:
Failure.
Failure is not an option. **
Sometimes failure is one of the best teacher you can get in your life. If you are always used to winning, how would you know what to do when that one time something beyond your control happened and you finally fail?
I am not saying you shouldn’t aim to be successful every time… Just be prepare for failure, learn from it, and come back stronger the next time.
I’d have to say that, yeah, failure is my greatest fear. I’ve already spent too much of my life trying to achieve my goals in life and trying to prove to myself that a lot of what I’ve had to deal with will be worth it in the end… and failure would basically say “You didn’t try hard enough. Something wrong happened.” The majority of the time in my case, there is no second chance…and that…that scares me…
I think for the most part though, I should just take things as they come, and hope that my best is enough.
