Tuesday, November 19, 2013

How to Respond to Fear


Fear is afraid of one thing – that you will turn on the lights and discover he's been eliminated.  That's all you need.  Just turn on the light.  In case your unwilling to crawl out from under your blankets and turn the light on, allow me to offer an example from my personal life:

Once upon a time I lived a fairy tale life.  I married the woman of my dreams.  We bought a home on top of a mountain.  My wife gave birth to three amazing children.  We both had stable jobs.  Then I had my first experience with a ghost.  I call my fear a ghost because he haunted me the same way Scrooge was haunted in Charles Dickens's narrative.  At the time I didn't realize all I had to do was turn on the lights.

My ghost tried to scare me in the middle of the night.  Uncertainty crept into my life like the morning tide.  I made a decision to turn on the light.  I read the writing on the wall and realized the only way I could beat uncertainty, the ghost of Christmas future, was to become an entrepreneur.  I spent the next year of my life developing a top-secret plan.  I put a team together and we hired an attorney.  Not a cheap one.  Someone who was considered the best in the business.  Then we crafted our plan to leave our jobs and compete with one of the biggest companies in America.  Let's just say they sent a few ghosts from Christmas present.  We were ready.

When it came time to answer their bogus claims, we asked our attorney if it was okay to photocopy our seven middle fingers and file them in court.  He laughed.  We decided it was better to do things his way.  The only thing missing when we opened our doors for business was fear.  Every one of us decided it's better to live in the light.

It's time to return to the court room again.  My opponent may be surprised in his discovery process to learn I'm not afraid of ghosts from the past, present or future.  I rather enjoy getting out my microscope and studying his idiosyncrasies.

The next time a ghost tries to sneak up on you, remember to turn on the light.  Have a great day.

2 comments:

Leland said...

You go Mikey!!!!!

Michael Mulligan said...

Thanks, Leland. I'm just following the scout motto, "be prepared." I'm in the middle of another great learning experience. It gives "see you on the courts" a whole new meaning.