More specifically, fear affects (or, ruins) us in 3 specific ways...
First, we worry about things happening & suffer, in advance...
Instead of living in the present, being focused & enjoying our life, we are wrapped in a ongoing anxiety about the future...
We play out these imaginary scenarios in our head... becoming more & more nervous, fearful, anxious & stressed about what's coming up...
(or, instead of sleeping peacefully at night, for example, we waste time running scenarios of all the bad things that we could happen to us!)
We start to suffer long before things actually happen...
Then, there are the situations themselves...
When great opportunities (to advance our careers, our relationships, our life, etc) present themselves...
Instead of facing our fear, transforming it & taking action... we get wrapped up it is & let it stop us!
Finally, there's the fallout...
Short term, we may rationalize our way out of it...
But, long-term, our constant inaction — our failure to truly take advantage of the opportunities we are presented with in our life — slowly eat away at us...
We experience deep regret...
"Why didn't I say something?"
"Why didn't I take action?"
"Why didn't I act courageously?"
This is the basis of a lot of the regret we experience...
In fact, it's well known amongst psychologists that...