Happy Spring time to you! Thank you for joining me down Curiosity Lane, exploring the depths of fear and all the lessons that lie in wait.
Let's dive write in (see what I did there? we're having fun)
A dear friend send me a post about fear yesterday, written by a performance coach, Dana Cavalea, glorifying the idea that fear kills dreams, growth, and even our souls.
This piece was written in response to Trumps words to a college football team that was visiting the Whitehouse. Trump's exchange with the team was, according to Cavalea:
The POTUS asked this college football team: "Anybody up here have fear?"
They replied as a group: "NO!"
POTUS says: "Good- that is the way we all have to think whether it is football or life"...
My friend asked for my thoughts on the subject, and I felt compelled to share them here with you, too.
There is no courage without fear.
A common misconception is that courage is the absence of fear, when the truth is that courage is one of many ways that we may respond to fear.
To ignore or reject fear is to reject a fundamental part of what makes us human. Fear is not a weakness, it is an awareness.
It is not fear that kills our dreams or growth or soul.
On the contrary, fear is proof we have a soul at all. It shows we care. It signals that something matters. And that is sacred.
What can kill dreams is how we respond to fear.
If we let it paralyze us, if we suppress it, demonize it, or pretend it doesn’t exist—yes, we risk becoming stuck. We risk shutting down. We risk losing ourselves.
But when we acknowledge fear as a natural part of life… when we meet it with curiosity, compassion, and courage—our dreams don’t die. They flourish.
So if Trump, and by extension Cavalea, intended to inspire courage, I believe they’ve missed the mark. Rejecting fear isn’t just misguided—it’s dangerous. It cuts us off from the very source of our deepest instincts and aspirations.
Instead of asking whether you have fear, I invite you to ask:
How do I respond to my fear?
Wishing you a healthy dose of fear—so that you may flex your full humanity and meet it with strength, softness, and soul.
With love and gratitude,
Dex