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What are we afraid of? I believe we’re afraid of things we can’t fully control. For example, we can’t control if our children hang out with bad kids at school, and then experiment with drugs; when we go to a horror movie in theatres, we can’t help but watch the terrifying pictures for the next two hours; when we go flying we have essentially no control over the smoothness of the flight, takeoff and landing. These are the kinds of things we lose sleep over. Things we can control, like the things we say, the clothes we wear, we tend to do okay on. But so many people are shackled by fears, almost all of them totally unfounded, that I thought a book on breaking free from fear would be interesting and helpful.

I had such sky-high hopes for this book, but within about 2 minutes of reading, I knew something was up. They say don’t judge a book by the cover. If only I’d heeded that advice, and flipped over the book, the Author Bio would have read, “Max Lucado, Minister of Writing and Preaching for the Oak Hills Church,” which is great, but if this book was going to base its advice on Holy Books, and several thousand year old religions, I fear a few of my readers are going to be left in the cold, namely Atheists and non-Christians. I too, am an Atheist, and have a spiritual side, but I’m looking for universal practical advice, and regrettably the advice Lucado offers is, essentially, to pray for a safe and happy future. Hmm. Something tells me my atheist friends aren’t gonna be drawn in by such a silver-tongue. So allow me to riff on the reality of atheist fears.

What it comes down it is my earlier description of what fear is, fear of the unknown, fear of that which we cannot control. We’re afraid that when the time comes, when the pressure is on (whatever such pressure may take the form of) we won’t be able to do what’s necessary to pull through. First off, I think any ‘fear’ which doesn’t have ‘death or critical physical injury’ involved has got to go. You just can’t listen to that stuff. Being afraid of social situations, that’s got to be one of the most common, and most harmless, much like ‘fear of public speaking.’ If you’re not going to die, or risk physical harm, then it’s down to ego, right? You don’t want to look bad or do badly. You don’t want to strike out with the bases loaded, with the world watching. Well if you want to get really good at something, you’ve got to practice it. Whether it’s public speaking, or stand-up comedy, I think Malcolm Gladwell covered this subject in his great “Outliers”: put the time in, and your fears, realistic though they may be, will evaporate over the course of your 10,000 hours.

Now, back to thoughts on fear, and some informed advice/discussion from those who actually have experience. Alternate books on fear, such as Arianna Huffington’s “Becoming Fearless,” would probably have been the ideal book for women, and 50 Cent tagging along with the great Robert Greene for “The 50th Law” will probably be the perfect book for guys. But I’m warning you, those books have boring covers .

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