DEFIANCE
I read an article about Winston Churchill and it identified defiance as an important part of his persona, going back to his earliest memories. The article suggested that Churchill's defiant attitude was his way of dealing with depression and fear. It occurred to me that defiance may be the best response to fear. Defiance doesn't demand understanding of one's fears and overcoming them, defiance suggests disregard for fear, ignoring fear.
Since fear is a terrible enemy of action, of all action we need to take to improve our lives and the lives of others, an enemy which can paralyze us and defeat us before the battle has even begun, we all have to overcome fear in some way. Some take the approach of analysis of the fear and, through this analysis, the elimination of fear. While effective, this approach can be a slow and lengthy one. Others do nothing, hoping that fear will vanish, will go away by itself. An approach which enables us to ignore fear, to proceed immediately, is at least worth thinking about.
Defiance is appealing, since it allows us to accept fear and still act in the face of it. Defiance enables us to be proud, to hold our heads up, and defeat fear by ignoring it. Defiance enables us to treat fear with contempt, to disdain fear. It allows us to avoid even thinking about the fear or the cause of the fear. We can move forward without a moment's thought of fear or delay.
Now defiance shouldn't equal foolhardiness. Sometimes responding to fear requires a reexamination of our activities, our goals, and taking a different path. Sometimes we need to accept fear as a warning, as something telling us to avoid extreme danger or to proceed cautiously. The need for defiance comes when our fears are unfounded, a way of avoiding action, when our fears arise from lack of desire, when our fears are really fears of ourselves, of our own inadequacies and weaknesses.
Defy your fears and move forward but don't be foolhardy. Determine whether your fears are simply an excuse for inactivity or a warning. In any event, don't let your fears paralyze you. Keep moving forward to achieve worthwhile goals, goals of self-improvement and improvement of the lives of others and pretty soon fear won't even be an issue.
12-3-01
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