Perplexing Emotion

As the young woman approaches the closed wooden door, her whole body starts to tense up. Suddenly, she feels like an ant sizing up to an elephant. As her body shakes and her knees grow weak and she gathers every ounce of courage to knock on her boss’ office door.

Fear is a perplexing emotion. Most people act out - or rather not act out - because of their sense of fear. The emotion has always been tagged with a negative connotation, mainly because it has the ability to paralyze an individual.

It can make one feel like a goldfish in a sea of sharks. It can keep an aspiring leader from their dreams. In modern culture, fear is usually dismissed as a weakness, although it can prove to be incredibly useful. While it is very plausible for an individual to allow fear to take control of their actions, two outcomes can exist. The adaptive and maladaptive uses of fear prove to be beneficial, but can also lead to detrimental effects.

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Take the woman previously mentioned for example. For years, she has dreaded waking up at 7 every morning to commute to a workplace that drained the life out of her. Her fear of the authority had stopped her from confronting her abusive boss - the main underlying reason why she felt inferior in her workplace. In this situation, her emotions, specifically fear, was preventing her from reaching her potential. In situations as such, persistent fear often leads one from taking appropriate action when it is needed.

If continued, it leads her to live her life in a closed room.

While she struggles to face her boss, the moment the woman knocks on the door becomes a turning point. Although it often conveys a negative connotation, fear can actually be beneficial at times. Working in a toxic environment had gotten to a point of anguish. While fear often prevents an individual from taking action, fear also acts as a catalyst for change and standing up to what is unacceptable because it lets an individual know that something isn't right. As the woman gathers her fear and take it to a meeting with her abusive boss, she does not realize the extent of her actions. Courage and fear go hand in hand; courage doesn't exist in the absence of trepidation. Not only can fear allow an individual to take action, it also contributes to personal growth. Whether one aims to change their situation or a make change in their personality, it will require a shifting of mindset and breaking of previously established barriers. Fear is a fluid, interpersonal experience that can both benefit and harm simultaneously at various degrees depending on how an individual decides to implicate it.