First Gentleman with Wilson Orhiunu
Email: babawill2000@gmail.com Twitter: @Babawilly
The dread of the present or the future is what fear is all about. With the exclusion of those imposters who say things like “I am afraid this relationship must come to an end”, “it is nothing to do with you”, “it is me” or “I am afraid we would not be granting you a Visa to the United Kingdom on this occasion”, most people who claim to fear or act as if they fear have honest claims. These false fear proclaimers lack something else beyond the absence of integrity. They lack sweat; for how can you really be afraid without sweating?
Fear has its important uses. Snake crawls into a room, fear spreads like a juicy rumour, everybody reacts like Usain Bolt does when a gun is fired and the room is promptly vacated. The adrenaline rush helps in times of emergency. It is also useful when an important event is coming up. Brain-storming and researching, working hard and aiming for perfection ensures no stone is left unturned in preparation.
For all the virtues of fear however, it tends to produce more harm than good in the life of people. Whilst it is acceptable to feel a bit edgy with impending examinations, public speaking engagements or job interviews, there are many who fear when there is absolutely nothing to fear. These are the people who create reasons to fear daily and remain faithful to their commitment to being afraid all day long. To these people, should an important event arise, they are thrown into a full blown panic for the live by Murphy’s Law (if it can go wrong, it will; go wrong-at the worst possible time).
Creative fearing, like all creative activities, involves the dreaming up of wondrous possibilities when nothing in the present suggests their remote existence. Like inventors in search of the next big thing that question “what if?” is followed by “why not?” in the minds of these “creatives”.
Inspiration comes from everyday occurrences and what better pool of information for them than the news. There is hardly any news bulletin that does not report the death of at least two people somewhere in the world. “If it happened to them, it could happen to me” seems like a reasonable conclusion to reach at the end of the news bulletin. Over the years, every accident and mishap that might occur during every activity under the heavens is stored in their minds ready to be recalled at the drop of a hat. Planes, trains and automobiles do crash as does the stock market, and relationships end, property gets stolen, drinks get poisoned, friends turn enemies, businesses collapse as do buildings, relatives die, epidemics spring up, public funds are embezzled and conspiracies abound everywhere; the list is endless.
Musicians usually say the person with the biggest record collection has a better chance of coming up with new music. The same applies to fear. To do it creatively, the mind must store thousands of adverse outcomes so that they are effortlessly applied to any new scenario that might spring up. Practice then makes perfect and ingenuity starts to manifest over time. I once had a patient who was riddled with fear about Birmingham (located in the middle of England and furthest from the sea in any direction) being hit by a Tsunami. One would expect coastal towns to worry about such. That is creativity for you. The mind is capable of conjuring up any eventuality no matter how unrealistic. Is that not why we watch movies; to view beautiful actors entertain us with the unrealistic and absurd all set to nice music?
The television and news is not enough though. Creative people need a circle of friends. I am sure most people would have noticed how the very good musicians hang out together as do the top sportsmen. This is what the late motivational guru Napoleon Hill called the Master Mind group. To really excel in any field from the noble to the criminal you need the support of a group. They serve to reinforce your beliefs and give you inspiration to strive on to excellence. The fearful who wish to remain so will not hang out with the positive mental attitude “freaks” who read autobiographies of people with courage and positive outcomes all day long. Horror movies, tragic dramas that linger forever, day time talk shows with guests that do not inspire are the staple diet of those who fear. They desperately want to see people who confirm to them what they fear; that life is unfair, life is tough and bad things happen so what is the point in striving for anything different? These shows will always have the lie detector as the star appliance. The fearful feel everyone is lying and gets a buzz out of a positive lie detector test it seems.
One does not become a master in a field by just being diligent in learning and applying knowledge.
True greatness comes through the vehicle of premonition. Knowing for sure that doom is at hand and acquiring a piece of the said doom hours before the expected date of arrival. Few attain to this level and this class of people are a sight to behold. Should they visit your house, appliances will erupt in flames and all they would do is smile knowingly, stroke their beards or hair extensions and say quietly, “I knew it”. They fear every activity will go wrong and like an industrial magnet they attract every bad thing. These ones have an infectious fear which they disseminate liberally.
Now, what is the solution to creative fearing?
- Ditch your Master Mind group; change your phone number and move house if necessary.
- Stop watching TV for two months and undergo a negative news feed detox
- Stop clicking on links on the web promising beheadings by Jihadist or wild animals eating human beings and finally
- Never talk about what you fear
