I was quite afraid initially, but I did it anyway. Fear is something that can hold one back from facing what he or she desire to achieve. I will say it's a strange thing.
A lot of times, there are many thoughts in our heads that are actually holding us back, nothing else. For me, the fear will first make me imagine things going wrong. If I start, what if I fail? What if this is that happens? In fact, I will already conclude in my head that I can't make it even before trying, and that's how bad this fear was dealing with me and still deals with me in certain areas of my life.
But then, there is one time I had to face my fears, and it was a defining moment in my life that taught me a lot, and I managed to overcome it simply by being courageous.
When I settled down in the city of Lagos, I realized that the whole movement will be better if I am mobile. Then hubby bought a car. I was excited, but fear was my greatest challenge to ride the car. I would go to work and see other women driving comfortably in their private cars to the office, but I kept struggling with public transport, sweating and dragging space with other passengers.
With the whole Lagos traffic, sweating a lot with lots of discomfort, it is not something you can escape by taking a public bus, but with your own vehicle, you have your comfort. However, the fear of getting into an accident with the car wouldn't allow me to enter the steering even after going through driving school.
I already cooked up wrong happenings in my mind even before trying. Like lots of negativities. What a phobia, lol. In fact, I kept dreaming of where I had an accident with the car; the nightmare was terrible, and killing my fear became so far from the reality. My husband tried to help me get out of this fear, but it took me a long time to try. When I finally did, I hit another vehicle one day, and the car owner forced me to take his car to the mechanic and fix it by myself.
It was an experience I won't forget in a hurry, and the tension was high. After I recovered from the tension, my hubby gave me courage that helped me to this day.
I started working on my mind and spoke positively about my driving capacity, maintaining all the driving rules and driving safely to date, and the feeling is unusual.
School runs, church activities with my kids, market shopping, outings with my family, etc., became fun and easier with me driving around without fear anymore.
Looking back now, I realize that the fear was actually bigger in my mind than it was in reality.
This post is in response to the #Hive Learners community prompt on the topic titled, FEAR.
Image was created using chatgpt