They say it is honourable for a person to admit their fears, but it is dishonourable for them to lie to themselves or others about it. All people are afraid unless they are perfectly free. If you can’t admit this, you are pretending to yourself and others. Fear is a part of life, and it forms one of our basic reasons’ motivators for doing anything.

We all know fear can either be a catalyst for great change or action, but if viewed differently, it can be a numbing agent, effectively breeding inaction or even pushing a person to act unnecessarily or out of bounds. 

Most of the foreigners who come to Namibia have expressed how fearful we are as a nation. They have observed that even though we are surrounded by opportunities, we hardly take them. Some even believe we are lazy. We are so fearful that we hardly do anything or even approach our edge. We fear the feeling of fear that we avoid it completely.

The fear of fear, as we have seen, could lead one to hang back in life, living a life of less than you are capable of, or worse, the fear of fear may lead you to push ahead and live a false life, ultimately missing the very essence of what you are trying to accomplish. Our ability to act and live despite our fear, instead of denying it or trying to escape it, is possibly one of our great acts of service to ourselves and others.

Now, this is not to be taken with real fearful situations, where you put your life and that of your loved ones in a position to be harmed. If you know there is a legitimate chance you might get hurt, it would be better to heed to your fear, acknowledge it and act accordingly.

Even though fear will always be present one way or another, the fact that we can acknowledge it will allow us to respond to it in the most appropriate manner. Just because you are a fearful person doesn’t mean you are scared; it just means you are in tune with yourself and acknowledging the moment before you. 

Be honest with yourself about your fears. After all, a fearful person who knows he is fearful is far more trustable than a fearful person who isn’t aware of their fear.

* Olavi Popyeinawa

Twitter: @olavipopyeinawa

Email: olavipopyeinawa@gmail.com