the air

While driving home from work this morning, the DJ on one of the local radio stations was asking his listeners what their biggest fear is. Rather than making the announcement as something spooky, his goal was to see what people did or were doing to overcome their fears. In retrospect, he wanted to outline how people got their strength to overcome their fears and give hope to those who are struggling with their fears.

My Fear Is…

My biggest fear is falling back to the same dark place where I was just a few years ago again. I remember when I had little hope and could not expect much from anything or anyone. To me, it always seemed that no matter how hard I tried or struggled, no good came out at the end. There were a few instances when I would see limited success, but often, the price would be high. So what exactly am I talking about? School!

Just a few years ago, I was struggling to make ends meet in terms of academics. I remember I would study all night long for major midterms and finals only to see that I barely got a C or even a D on some of them. Regrettably, I would end up receiving a C or D, sometimes F, in some of my classes. At this point, my parents were really discouraged with me, my own school was sending me warning letters asking me to improve or else. One of the hardest things was to see my own “friends” shy away from me because they did not want to associate with someone who wasn’t going to be successful. Luckily, there were a few who stuck around and worked with me to improve my academic career.

I overcome my fear by…

It isn’t easy overcoming this fear given that I am doing very well right now. Everyday, I wake up reminding myself that my success is because I have struggled to make things right and that if I don’t continue making things right, I will only end up back where I don’t want to be. The Kaizen principle has played an integral role in ensuring that I am always evolving and learning new things. It has taught me to make mistakes in good faith but spend the extra time to learn everything about those mistakes and move on. Plus, the kaizen principle also teaches me to change and improve. Essentially, everything I do, I tell myself that I can do it better. If I get straight A’s, I tell myself that I can always do better by trying new ways to get straight A’s. This way, I have more than one tool to find success and continue to build on it. What more could I ask for?

So what is your biggest fear? How did you overcome your fear and how do you continue to keep your fear at bay?

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