Some leaders swear by it. The better ones avoid it. But in all of us it lies.
Just today I wasted the better part of my morning looking into the harsh laws of drug trafficking in southeast Asia (namely Bali). It turns out they’re very ruthless when it comes to convictions—it’s either life in prison or death.
Now just to be clear—I’m not the kind of guy who does drugs let alone smuggle them, so I’m not overly worried. But I’m certainly paranoid about the possibilities of what could happen if I were set up, falsely accused, or an unwitting player in someone’s fucked up luggage schemes.
This paranoia leads to fear—fear of death, of never again seeing my wife or kids. But then that fear is linked to a much grander fear—a fear of everything that could go wrong in life (fear of failure) rather than all the things that could go in my favor.
When you send that node of fear to your brain, it permeates a much larger substrata of your life. It creeps, then and gains momentum like a wrecking ball. This it swirls like a violent typhoon, taking everything down in its path.
The result is oppression. Paralysis. An inability to feel normal, to even want to feel normal.
Because it’s so hard to “snap out of it,” I found the best thing to do is just that—DO. Take action. Set a plan, no matter how numb you feel, then take the steps to complete them.
Remember—the body is a vessel of action, and by using it you are instigating change. Emotions are powerful, but we also have our minds (which can go quick, too when depressed) and our bodies. Forcing even the most minimal of action when feeling sluggish is a corporeal sign to the universe that you care, and you matter.