No fear

I was thinking back the other day whilst watching the news; when I say 'back' I refer to around the time I was a teenager [which after all, wasn't that long ago!]

We're all painfully aware of the stream of horrific items being reported in the news on a daily basis - missing children, war torn regions of the world, knife and gun crime, elderly people being mugged and so on. These events do seem to occur more now than they did years ago. But in actual fact, I've come to recognise that I just notice more. As I grow [a little] older, I also start to realise my own mortality; and that things scare me now. Where as before, back when I was a teenager, nothing really got through!

As a teenager, the news didn't touch me - no matter what I saw; it was as if watching a TV drama. Nothing unusual there I'm sure. Why shouldn't teenagers brush things off? After all, cynicism is supposed to be a defensive tool learnt as one grows older whilst beginning to see how unfair life is - or can be [Oops, there's that cynical side, how depressing!]

In my teens and twenties, I was preoccupied with my own existence - which at the time was of paramount importance to me, and quite right too! I still had a list of monumental mistakes to make and some great adventures to experience. If I'd been full of fear, I probably wouldn't have done half the things I did. I happen to hold a great belief that we are the sum of our experiences – I think you'll pick that up from my website or one of my other blogs.

It just strikes me there are so many reasons to do stuff when you’re young; and so many excuses not to do them when you’re older. For those of us putting aside our dreams or ambitions for ten years or so, chances are we won’t get around to doing them at all. It’s closely related to that ‘change thing’ that we hate so much, or at least the fear of change. That’s why so many great ideas have ‘thought’ their way into mothballs. We scare ourselves out of them, and the older we are the worse we get!

Try not to fall into the trap. It’s so easily done, as I know myself. But everything I’ve ever done that was worthwhile has been a challenge.