Fortune Cookie Friday: Unlocking Fearless Courage
Now that Halloween has passed, we can put all the spooky, scary stuff behind us, right? Wrong. Fear is always with us. It’s part of human nature. So, I was a little shocked when I read today’s fortune and found the words “fearless courage.”
I’ve written about fear and courage in the past, and I believe that courage is not the absence of fear but overcoming it. After careful consideration, I gave the fortune a little leeway, but it reminded me of a show I’ve watched on Netflix.
The series, Locke & Key, is a 2020 American supernatural horror drama about the three Locke siblings. After the mysterious murder of their father, the children and their mother move into their ancestral home, Keyhouse, which they discover is full of magical keys that may connect to their father’s death.
The magical keys can open doors to other places and possibilities, and one can even open the mind. The middle child, Kinsey, uses this key to enter her mind and reminisce about her late father. When she discovers her fear lurking in her head, she removes it and buries it in the woods.
Since her fear was gone, Kinsey was more confident and took more risks in her life—some were good, some were bad. Eventually, she learns that she can’t live without her fear but needs to control it. So, she seeks it out and returns it to her mind.
Now, we can’t really remove the fear emotion from our brains and go about life without feeling trepidation nagging us every once in a while. Fear is part of our fight or flight mechanism that has kept us safe for thousands of years.
A certain amount of fear is good for us. Fear keeps us in check and causes us to pause and consider the risks in life. The last thing we want to do is run fearlessly into dangerous situations. Nonetheless, we have to deal with fear if we’re going to be courageous, and we have to have courage if we’re going to succeed.
The “fearless courage” in the fortune could refer to taking risks. Most successful ventures require us to take chances in some form or another. Just as we can’t get rid of fear, risks are always around us. We need to acknowledge our fears and examine how and why they are holding us back. Assessing those risks can help us determine how to proceed.
This premise holds true for someone going into battle, starting a new business, or climbing into bed and spotting a spider on the ceiling. Is the situation dangerous? Are we prepared for the circumstances if we fail or don’t act? Are we making a mountain out of a molehill?
Most of the time, our learned experiences in certain situations can help us out. We can practice first aid techniques, seek financial backing, or have a box of tissues handy. Preparation allows us to put our fears aside and mitigate our risks. This, in turn, helps us envision our goals and reach them even though there may be hurdles along the way.
So, is risk-taking the foundation of victory, or is it preparation? Perhaps they work together, and that combined effort is the “fearless courage” in today’s fortune.
From taking that first daunting step to pushing ourselves to the finish line, courage is the driving force of success. As we can see, it takes a little bit of preparation and risk to master our fear and be courageous.
Do we want to be successful? Then maybe fearless courage is the key.
