Gift Of Fear Essay

Fear is often seen in our society as a drawback, something that should be eliminated from ourselves in order to achieve our full potential. Fear of failure and fear of taking risks are all restrictions that we have learned to ignore. We are taught that these concerns limit us and deprive us of our ability to be successful. It can sometimes disadvantageous in certain situations but I would challenge you in this essay that the restrictions of anxiety can be beneficial. The reality is that we need fear in our lives to keep our decisions in check. Despite being generally seen as a restrictive emotion, fear can be beneficial by preventing us from taking unnecessary risks and keeping us out of danger.

One of the major qualities of fear we don't often think about is that it is a survival instinct. It prevents us from taking dangerous risks or performing unsafe acts. In Gavin de Becker’s bestseller “Gift of Fear”, it explains that every animal in nature is equipped with intuitive mechanisms for detecting fear. When a rabbit senses danger, he doesn’t explore what that danger is, he receives the message loud and clear and flees the scene. In our lives, we often forget that fear’s primary task is to control our risk taking and ensure our safety. Being afraid affects our actions and helps keep us safe. In many cases being afraid can potentially limit someone’s experiences however more times than not, it will also benefit us by preventing bad or dangerous decisions.

Taking Stace in the Story Adult Beginner 1 as an example, she is presented with a straightforward choice; if she wants to jump off the building or not. Despite the obvious danger of the jump, her peers have convinced her otherwise and in the absence of her fear, she jumps. We ...

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...r future generations and the world they will live in.

As a result, in our lives, we need to adopt an attitude geared towards courage, and to take risks for the right reasons. In the story, Stace took risks and applied fearlessness for the wrong reasons which caused her to end up in a bad situation. We ourselves need to avoid ignoring our fears and learn to accept them in order to ensure not only our own safety but the well being of those around us.

In conclusion, being afraid is not necessarily a bad thing. It keeps away from danger, gives us opportunities to grow, and it prevents us from making mistakes that impact the world around us. As a society, I think we need to learn to embrace our fears, instead of shunning them. We need to accept our imperfections in order to create a society that values courage, and character instead of fearlessness and risk taking.