Action Cures Fear

You know that feeling you get sometimes, the feeling when you have so many tasks in front of you, and only a limited amount of time in which to get them done? It's a strange feeling really because, whereas it ought to provoke one into immediate and urgent action so that items can quickly begin to be ticked off the list, it can often induce the onset of lethargy – just the opposite of what is required.

I feel like that today. I am faced with an enormous list of 'things to do', and I know I should begin to assail it with a pressing vigour, but I seem instead to be gripped by a distinct lack of motivation or dynamism. In fact, it's worse than that – I feel absolutely paralyzed with inactivity. It's as if the terrible vastness of the tasks ahead is so overwhelming that it has struck me dumb and turned me to stone. A pillar of salt. In trying to decide which task to face first, it is impossible to decide to do any of them. I'm like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an overburdened schedule. I am frozen in terror.

This is different from mere procrastination. At least with procrastination one can actually pretend to be busy by doing other (non-urgent) jobs in order to put off for longer the getting of the urgent ones done. No, this is quite different – I am in the grip of total inactivity. I am sitting here, just staring into space, and feeling more and more guilty and depressed. Every time I look at the list, I realize that something else needs to be added – yet another job that I have neither the energy nor the inclination to begin.

My great aunt Dolores (the one who was once run over by a lorry yet survived, and who later took up playing the xylophone only to die later by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel) had a favourite saying connected with this: "Action cures fear". It's a deceptively simple expression and so very, very true. When we are frightened by the thought of doing something, the only real cure is to get on and do it. As soon as we take action, the fear is immediately despatched. You see the (perhaps irrational) fear of doing something is often greater than the (nearly always tangible) action of doing it – so the simple solution is just to get on with it. There are no exceptions to the rule too – the maxim works every time. If say, you are frightened of putting your hand into a tank of venomous snakes, then by putting your hand into the tank, you instantly remove the fear. You might, however, be dead – but you will no longer be frightened. It works every time.

So, now that we have that little matter settled, I'm going to pick up my 'To Do' list and just do whichever job appears at the top, no matter how daunting it seems. Now let's see.... oh, it says: "Write Blog".

How strange. How very strange indeed.