Facing and Freeing Fear

    Is there life with out fear? Can people live without being afraid of something, or are they just stupid and ignore their fears? I don't know, but I do know that the balance of the two is called courage.

    Fear, for the sake of this essay is the avoidance of something or someone for the well being of self or another. It is something that all must meet on a personal level, and all must deal with fear in their own way. Fear is often circumstantial and undoubtedly should be dealt with in reason to the circumstances, but should it stop one from chasing their dreams?

    Stupidity can mean many things but here I use the word in the idea of ignoring fears. Stupidity can lead to some of the greatest things that one could achieve. An example of this is playing the lottery while the odds of winning are immensely slim and the cost relatively high for the odds; winning can bring what many people consider their greatest hope. But stupidity can lead to some of the worst possible scenarios also, as people have gambled their life away looking for the big win.

    Does the probability of reward and the reward itself justify the cost? This is the question which decides this in my mind. "Would the cost hurt another?" is also something that I consider a huge deciding factor in whether to move past fear. I find more and more that following fear is a great method of self-preservation, but it will almost never lead to anything worth time and effort so fears must often be trampled. Even though it is often easy to be brash by doing this but one must always be sure to take into account how the fear should be faced either in a brash and stupid fashion, in a slow deliberate cautious fashion or anything in between.

    On a final note I find that some rewards are so great that even pure stupidity is even accepted if the time to make the choice is at hand and plans cannot be made. Though in the process one must be sure that the costs do not harm others and choices should be made to avoid the injury of those not meant to be harmed. If harm is an obvious cost a post or mid act analysis should be taken to see if more harm can be avoided or mitigated, but it must be realized that once something is started it maybe impossible or even severely detrimental to stop or back away from it. Finally if the reward is immensely great and within reach it does not in my opinion justify the severe harm to another even if the chance is soon to be lost.



WIP
will be edited and expanded