When I started dating Amy, we often would rent movies and watch them together. She is a big fan of suspense movies, especially older ones, like Hitchcock’s films. So one night we rented Wait Until Dark. In the film, Audrey Hepburn is a recently blinded young woman who is basically terrorized by these three thugs who think she has a teddy bear full of heroin. The movie is extremely well done and you can imagine the suspense of a blind woman in an apartment with people there who want to do her harm. At one point, the tension increases greatly and suddenly a cat jumps out. Amy had seen the movie before and when that happened, she grabbed me and yelled to startle me. She succeeded…admirably. I actually leapt out of my seat.

Since that time I refused to watch that movie again. Mostly my man pride was hurt, but it was also a pretty intense film. Years later, we were talking with our friend Scott. We often loaned each other movies, and sure enough, he had Wait Until Dark. One day, Amy came home with the movie in a bag. On the box, Scott placed a post-it note that said “Face your fear.” We watched the film and I faced my fear.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been working hard on facing my fears. Reading Wild at Heart helped to show me that often what we fear is exactly what we need to do to grow. So when there is something that I just do not want to do, typically from fear of failure or rejection, I make the decision to tackle that immediately. Just pull that band-aid off quickly and get it over with.

So, the question now is, since I’ve been trying to do this for a few years, what are the results? How am I doing? Overall, I’m doing a lot better. Where in the past I’d avoid confrontation, I’m now actually facing it and dealing with it. When I previously had something I didn’t want to do, I’d put it off for as long as possible. Now, I typically jump in and tackle it, just get it over with.

The great thing, is the more fear I face, the less fearful I am in the future. It becomes easier to deal with something when I’ve faced it before. It is not rocket science to discover this, but it is very true. And that is the ultimate benefit of facing my fear. I will be afraid a lot less.

Now, there are still areas I need to attack, most notably the Porsche (which is a whole other post), and by extension my fear of failure. But still, facing my fears has strengthened me in every situation. So, what fear do you have that needs facing? Today is the day!