Erwin McManus is a pastor, author, and speaker. Fear is so ingrained in our minds that we forget it’s not our natural state. So how do we break free from it, understand ourselves better, and push past fear to become our best selves? Expect to learn why people find it so hard to know and show themselves, why so many people are negative at a default, how to not get paralysed by overthinking, how do you live a courageous life, how to overcome fear and how to stop being so afraid, the biggest differences between being lazy and tired, why we’re so mean to ourselves, the most common myths people should stop believing immediately, balancing the tension between humility and confidence, and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get $350 off the Pod 4 Ultra at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 5 Free Travel Packs, Free Liquid Vitamin D, and more from AG1 at https://drinkag1.com/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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You said you've limited your impact in the world because of a lack of self-belief. Tell me the story then.
Well, you know, I think when I was young, I had the view that some people were just naturally heroic and some people were just naturally born cowards. And I fell into that category. You know, if I look back when I was young, I was afraid of everything. And some of it was experiential. You know, we got attacked by a dog. So I was terrified by dogs all my life.
I had a seatbelt break on a roller coaster and almost flew off the roller coaster. And so I was afraid of roller coasters or anything fast. And I began realizing that I began accumulating fear. And the problem with fear is that it doesn't stay in a category. It permeates throughout your whole soul, your psychological well-being.
And I began realizing that I was more defined by fear than I was by almost any other emotion. And I didn't really have a strategy. We didn't have what we have today, so many ways of accessing insight and ways of understanding mental structures and mind shifts. But so I had to make my own decision. I had to decide how would I affect this? How would I change this?
And so I developed a strategy to use fear as my life compass. Whenever I felt fear, I just moved toward it. Whenever I felt afraid of something, I actually moved more aggressively in that direction. And what I discovered by the time I'd finished my 20s is that there were actually international magazines and documentaries that were flying in to see what I was doing because they felt I was fearless.
And I thought this was so ironic that I was being defined as someone who was fearless. And in fact, my favorite superhero is Daredevil, the man without fear. And it was because I iconically longed to become that person because I knew how my whole life was captured by fear. And so I learned how to take negative material and turn it into a positive asset.
And I think that for me is the key is that I've lived a pretty adventurous life, traveled to nearly a hundred countries, gone to some of the most dangerous places in the world, walked the streets of Damascus, dropped into Pakistan and throughout the Middle East, different parts of the world that very few people ever go to and very few people ever survive.
And one of the most interesting things for me is that in those moments, I didn't feel captured by fear at all. And a huge part of that was because I'd learned how to take this emotion, this experience called fear, turned it into a positive fuel and use it as a way to motivate me to move forward in life.
How can people work out if they are being ruled by fear in their life?
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