The mastermind group that emerged from the Transform Fear Into Action class has evolved in interesting and exciting ways. Initially, the group was planning to continue working on their fear transformation, based on the core curriculum of the course. It’s grown from that, though, and now we are working on exploring our worlds with the core concept — the transformation tool — helping us look at our worlds.
Some of the students had defined “fear” with a narrow focus, some going so far as to conclude they had no fear. Others defined “fear” so broadly that everything was fear-based. In our monthly meetings, we are finding the happy medium between the two extremes, each person moving from their original position toward the center.
The conversation we had recently was centered on the concept of responsibility versus powerlessness. One attendee posed it beautifully with the question “is it that we are reluctant to take responsibility for our lives (and therefore we want someone else to be in control) or is it that we feel powerless (and therefore someone else must be in control)”?
A subset of the conversation was whether greed or fear rules much of our decision-making. How the two concepts, responsibility vs powerlessness and greed vs fear, entwine to create the society we live in today?
In 90 minutes we clearly didn’t reach any conclusions, but we did peel back lots of onion layers of the concepts and connected them to situations we’ve seen or experienced, especially recently.
Pick a topic or scenario. Explore it with the presented concepts and see where you go in understanding what’s happening. If you keep an open mind and are curious, you should come to a better understanding of why people act the way they do. When you stay present with that understanding, you have a better chance of being adaptable to their behavior, actions, and statements.
With all of that, you have a better handle on seeing how your attitudes and actions impact those around you. Are you reluctant to take responsibility for your life, or do you feel powerless and want others to be in control of your life? Or flip the concept and ask: do you take full responsibility for your life or do you feel empowered and not want others to be in control of your life?
Pondering these kinds of questions will expand your mind and open doors to new ways of thinking and acting. That’s all part of how you transform fear into action. That’s also an activity that keeps your mind limber and you young.
These thought exercises might also keep you up at night, so be careful when you start them. I’ll suggest you not start something like this just before bed — if you want to sleep well.