Thursday 13 December 2012

Flying in the Face of Fear


Have you ever had a brilliant idea that made you feel really excited? Were you were so ready to run with it and it could have changed or enhance your life greatly. It could have been anything from an invention, a house move, starting your own business, a change in career or you may have wanted to go back into education, to learn about something you enjoy – as oppose to have to do. Then, as quick as a flash, all those great ideas came to a grinding halt!

The inspirational glow you felt, as you dipped your toe into the exciting world of “I want to do this! This is amazing!” quickly turned into self-doubt, as you climb back in to your warm, cosy cocoon in retreat.

All those enthused feelings of happiness, excitement and motivation simply disappeared into the big black hole marked “I should have done that!”

The niggles in the back of your mind, full of; “what if”, “I can’t”, “I’m not ready”, “I’m not qualified”, “I don’t have the funds”, and so on, go racing round your mind, telling you that you cannot do it because, because, because……

We can all, very quickly, talk ourselves out of absolutely anything and everything. When those feel good moments have passed, we end up listening to our negative thoughts, which drag us down and hold us back. We then beat ourselves up for not taking that leap of inspirational faith and, in the end; we cease all action and go back to our regular day-to-day routine.

This is what can be described as the reverse butterfly effect.

Just to explain, the butterfly effect theories that even the smallest change can have a chaotic effect on something else. This theory has been at the centre of many physics debates, along with the closely related chaos theory, and string theory – where a single atom can affect another, seemingly unrelated, atom.

If we take this idea and translate it into our own lives, the reverse butterfly effect is doing nothing to affect nothing. Yet, if we had just made that big push and continued on the path of inspired action, we could have created a chain reaction. Simply put, if we had just stretched our wings that little bit further we could have created a multitude of positive outcomes.

However, sometimes our seemingly inspired actions are born from a lack of knowledge or confidence. There is a misconceived perception in our minds that we need to put ourselves through a series of education and learning. It makes us feel ready, credible and qualified to tackle our personal, ideal world of creativity, work and/or business. The belief that we need to collect certificates, diplomas, degrees etc. acts as a security blanket, making us feel ready to fulfill our life goals. Nevertheless, this is just another delay tactic.

Cynics, no doubt, would question this notion, given that many people become very successful after their studies. However, by putting off doing what we really want to do right now, delaying our hearts desires, as we don’t feel ready, equipped or qualified, and never realizing our goals, through lack of confidence and fear, all leads to disappointment and, in turn, resentment.

The fact is we can never stop learning. We learn through articles and books, through TV programmes and movies. It shapes our thoughts, beliefs, values and we learn invaluable skills and knowledge through every life experience. That is a qualification in itself.

Research, conducted by the University College of London, shows that when we have high level of feel good chemicals in our bodies, we are able to make decisions much faster, by going with gut instincts, relating to how it makes us feel emotionally. Moreover, in order to create those chemicals you need to do something that motivates and excites you. Furthermore, by combining other “happy chemical” triggers into the equation, such as certain feel good foods and activities; we can create cataclysmic and inspired choices to change your life. Therefore, you can quite literally perpetuate yourself into a happy, successful state through inspired action.

Let me throw another, potentially freedom-inducing, theory into the equation.

Let us say we are living a virtual life, much like a video game. We have infinite power and control over the “game of life” and we have the ability to choose several different scenarios, settings and experiences. If we are living the parallel life then perhaps I am not actually writing this, as my true self is in fact on a warm sandy beach in the tropics, and I am controlling this occurrence from under a palm tree. However, as you are also in the tropics on a 50 ft yacht your other self is relaying this article back to you. So, as you are not here, I am elsewhere, and this may not actually be happening, I could in fact choose to write (and this is debatable) all kinds of wackiness!

If, at this specific moment in time, we are living our lives in several parallel universes, we could be running alongside our “other lives”, experiencing different things, all at the same time. Moreover, our multiple, simultaneous lives could be our trusty back-up parachute, so if we do go off course we could, in theory, leap-frog to another.

If it were true, would that “reality” give you more abandon, freedom and flexibility?

In any case, it is better to look back on life and say “I can’t believe I did that” than to look back and say “I wish I did that!” So, perhaps it’s best to give in to our inspired thoughts and feelings and just go for it – as they occur to give us the right, individual and unique life experiences. And, just like a video game, we are all equipped, ready to do anything and can achieve our life goals – If only we had the courage and whole-hearted belief in ourselves.

If the delicate little butterfly can break free, fly into the big wide world and cause a spot of chaos then why can’t you?



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