Fearless

I see this guy with a laughing skull on his shirt and FEARLESS in bold letters across the front.   Every time I see one of these, I think what a wrong message it sends.

Fear is a good thing.  Fear gives you the ability to recognize a threat or dangerous situation.  After you recognize it, you get to decide how you are going to navigate it, deal with it, or avoid it.  Fear is a healthy part of every day life.  It should not be avoided, ignored, or put on laughing skull t-shirts.

You navigate through fear by being well trained and prepared.  The FD has always taught me this.  Exhaustive training and preparation will help you make the right choices when you are in a tough, scary situations.  Even then you use fear to help you reevaluate changing situations and circumstances.  Preparation and training includes the mental and physical aspects.  Nothing takes the edge off fear like being knowledgeable about what you stepping into. 

You deal with fear by simply accepting that it is a part of any worthwhile endeavor. 

There are certainly times when fear will help you avoid a situation or circumstance that you simply do not belong in.  You should not however use fear as an excuse.  There are going to be those times when you are not as prepared as you should be and you still need to move forward.  When I was taking those P-school tests, I frequently felt like I was almost in over my head.  The only thing that took the edge off of that was keeping my head in the books.

People confuse anxiety with fear.  Anxiety is anticipation of danger when there is no real threat or danger.  It is the thing that typically proceeds fear.  Anxiety produces a lot of stress and that stress brings all of your preparation and training to screaming halt.  Anxiety makes manageable things insurmountable.  People get all worn out and used up just being anxious.  Fear can really paralyze you when your anxiety has stopped your preparation and worn you out mentally.

There is a very long list of things that people use to manage fear that just don't work.  There is nothing that you can drink, smoke, or take in pill that makes it go away.  If you try to escape that way, your fear will wait patiently for you to return. 

The only place for FEARLESSNESS is on crappy t-shirts and bumper stickers. 

Love Dad