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Diego Camarena

Miss Williams-Arnold

English Language Arts II (Gr 10) Honors

24 October 2020

Overcoming Fears Essay

Most people are usually afraid to do things they are not very familiar with, but oftentimes

things that you are unfamiliar with provide the biggest opportunities for you as a person. This

quote really reminds me of a different quote by Tony Robbins, “ The only person truly holding

you back is you”. The driving idea in these quotes is, due to fear you are stopping yourself from

progressing both literally and mentally. If you don't take a risk and attempt to overcome your

fears you will never see the outcome of the risk, thus effectively shutting the doors to

self-improvement. Although I agree with this quote, you shouldn't ALWAYS follow it because

there are some things in life you shouldn’t do. Like jumping into lava, or attempting to hold your

breath underwater for 24 hours. Following the ideology of the quote could lead to injury, or

death. Apart from obvious exceptions, the quote is very adequate for today's society where

people are taking risks everyday, and changing the world for the better. Everyone faces fears, but

one who lets fears control their mind prevents themselves from doing what is desired.

Fear is essentially the presence of danger or the threat of harm, but the reality is that what

you fear might actually benefit you. Examples of this range from being afraid to walk as a baby,

to opening up a business as an adult. What would've happened if colonists never overcame their

fear of the British? What would've happened if Martin Luther King Jr never overcame his fear of

whites? What would’ve happened if Jeff Bezos never opened up Amazon? What these three have
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in common is that due to their risk taking they achieved something that wouldn't have been

achieved otherwise. They risked everything from their careers to possibly their lives, but in the

end their risk paid off. Those colonists created America, Martin Luther King Jr ended

segregation, and Jeff Bezos became the richest man on earth. Fear causes restraints on your life,

but the only way to break free is to conquer your fears. Sometimes those fears can haunt you

later in your life. An example from my personal life would be when my uncle got deported. Two

weeks before my family received the news, my uncle invited me to go to Cedar Point but since I

was afraid of rollercoasters I declined the invitation. Now I deeply regret that because if I hadn’t

been afraid of rollercoasters I would have been able to see him and his family one last time. Now

I have learnt that in order to progress as a human you must overcome any restraints preventing

you from progressing, unfortunately one of the biggest restraints is fear.

Overall, it may be said that fear is a restraint on life and the only way to prosper as a

human is to break the barriers of fear preventing you from becoming the best version of yourself.

When you overcome your fears you can move on to do great things. An example of this is

Abraham Lincoln, and his fight to end slavery. Believe it or not, Abraham Lincoln was once

afraid of public speaking, but with his courage and determination he surged forward to fight for

his cause. This is especially surprising to me because not only was he afraid of public speaking,

his cause was already provoking enough. If it weren't for his bravery and determination the

United States would be set back hundreds of years, and racism could still be an issue today. He

set the stage for fighting discrimination which has since left a substantial precedent for future

leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. To summarize, I believe that although fear is usually

thought to have a negative connotation, it has helped us evolve as humans. Fear has brought
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curiosity, will, determination, along with many other factors that have helped us make the world

how it is today, and it will continue to affect the world in years to come.