Stay in the Fight!

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Stay in the Fight!

There is a universal human urge to avoid pain, to succumb to fear, and to shirk discomfort.  The fear mechanism that alerts us to danger can easily paralyze us, and that paralysis holds a danger of its own.  The fear instinct is a biological trait that is encoded into our brains as a survival mechanism.  It serves to keep us alive when confronted by true danger; but left unchecked, this biological trait will cause your body and soul to atrophy.

Fortunately, we have tools to regulate this trait and allow us to turn surviving into thriving.  These are mental tools, such as our will and our ability to reason, that allow us to override our body’s signals when it makes sense to do so.  We have an intellect that can help us make calculated risk decisions and recognize when our biological signals are luring us into paralysis.   We have a will that gives us the ability to selectively override the signals that are telling us to avoid discomfort.

It seems fairly evident that in order to gain something extremely valuable in the future, you must sacrifice something important (but ultimately less valuable) now.  Life is a struggle, and nothing truly valuable ever comes easy.  We must fight the fear that holds us back; and we must stay in the fight, even if the odds are against us or even if the outcome looks bleak.

You must choose not to allow fear to paralyze you or allow complacency to seduce you. You must stay in the fight because you have everything to lose.  You may lose the fight if you stay in the fight.  But if you abandon the fight, you will lose not only the fight, but you will also lose everything that is important to you.  If you stay in the fight and lose the fight, you will lose the fight but win your soul.  If you abandon the fight, you will certainly lose both the fight and your soul.

Too many people have allowed fear to lead them down the path of complacency.  Fear is the substance we bestow upon shadows.  Do not succumb to the temptation to withdraw into a life of comfortable oblivion.  The world needs you to stand against chaos, against exploitation, against evil.

So for the sake of your soul and everything that is of lasting value, stay in the fight!