How To Overcome Fear: Lesson From A Pirate

I feel like there has been a slight shift in what I’m seeing on social Media. When this all started, we saw pictures of people going crazy at Costco and we laughed at them. Then the memes came. Now, what I see is a bit more subtle. Everything has hint of anxiety and fear underneath it. People I know not to be fearful at all, are changing their behaviors out of fear. Fear has completely penetrated our social psyche.

Living in fear is miserable. I know this virus is scary, but that is danger. That is a physical risk that we have to respond accordingly to. Fear is different. Fear is inside of us. It is a choice we make, a position we take. I understand this because I am a fearful person and I battle this every day.

So, how do we overcome fear?

We overcome fear with vision.

We must look into the future and find something good, something beautiful, and hold on to it. We must focus on that good and beautiful thing and always strive towards it. If we remain focused on the good and beautiful in the future, then we can handle the danger and release the fear.

My favorite example of this is Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean.

This guy was a cursed pirate. He grabbed some treasure that made me an undead-skeleton thing. He couldn’t taste food or feel any pleasure. It was a miserable existence for him, but he kept going because he had a vision of being able to taste an apple again in the future. If you remember he gets all creepy watching the girl eat an apple, then boasts about eating a whole bushel of apples, and he dies at the end of the movie with an apple in his hand. We don’t celebrate Jack Sparrow overcoming Barbossa in the end because all he wanted was an apple and he would never get it.

This is a perfect example of using vision to drive you through a time that isn’t fun. If you stay focused on the good and beautiful you will have in the future, you can get through anything. If I can offer a small recommendation though…make your vision bigger than an apple. There are things greater and more beautiful than physical pleasures.