Overcoming Small Fears to Tackle Big Things

The world is full of big fears. There is a pandemic on and the climate crisis is our new, noisy, next-door neighbour. There are conflicts and wars, tensions, and hate crimes. There are unsafe neighbourhoods, hostile environments, and places where it is life-threatening to go out at night.

There is a lot to be afraid of.

In the grand scheme of things, you probably should be terrified.

Perhaps, you are.

But being afraid won't fix our carbon footprint or solve the refugee crisis, or banish COVID-19.

Also, we are not "grand scheme of things" kind of creatures.

Often, the solution to things at large lies in fixing things on a small scale.

We spend so much time afraid and worried, that we forget that on a small scale, in the "here and right now", nothing bad is happening to us. Sure, the world is a crazy place, but right this moment, I am typing along on my MacBook and things are fine. I am not hungry. I am not in pain. I am not upset. It's ok.

What's more, things will still be ok if I get a little brave. If I speak up, usually nothing bad happens. Sure, some people might roll their eyes but I will never know. The world is not going to end just because I said something out loud.

We think that even if we are not brave when it comes to the small things, we will step up if the problem gets big enough. If things are dire enough, we will overcome our fear.

That's not how fear works.

Besides, by the time we are so terrified that we can either engage in the fight or surrender to the flight, it's probably way too late to do anything sensible.

If we want to have a chance, we have to start early.

We have to overcome our small fears to tackle the really big ones.

Overcoming our fear in the small stuff is how we learn to get brave on a grander scale. If you want to change the world someday, you first have to learn how to change your caffeine addiction, your nasty phone habit, or the neighbourhood parking policy.

If you want to be sure that you'll be able to speak up when the big issue rolls around, you have to learn how to speak up when it comes to minor things.

The best way to learn this is to find something small that you're afraid of and do it. You'll see that nothing bad happens when you say "no" or speak your mind or disagree with someone.

Nothing bad happens when you are yourself.

Once you're sure of that, no one can stop you.