The Humor Of Fear

There's no getting away from it. Fear. We all have our own unique list of what it looks like. We have a job, we fear losing it. We lose a job, we fear never getting a new one. We have money, we fear it will disappear. We don't have money, we fear we'll never save a penny. We don't have a boyfriend or spouse and we fear we'll never have one. We have one and we fear breaking up or divorcing. We're fat. We fear never losing the weight. We lose the weight and we fear we'll get fat again.

It's a vicious cycle.


Fear creates worry. Worry is a waste of time. Nothing gets done when worry sets in. For some it can be debilitating. They take Xanax to make it through the day. My grandfather used to sit in his Barcalounger holding on to a pair of pale blue worry beads he had brought from Greece with him. That's how people dealt with worry in the days before pharmaceutical solutions. They played with a string of beads so they had something concrete to hold on to.



Fear can be looked at as a good thing. Fear is often the catalyst for change. The beginning of a decision to reinvent things.



Sometimes it can be used for distressing purpose. Terrorists use fear to try and stop what they don't like. The RNC has a new fundraising strategy aimed at manipulating fear of Socialism to raise money for the Republican party.


I can get pretty serious when my fears pop up their ugly little heads. I don't medicate and I don't take out the worry beads. A glass of wine doesn't hurt but I find humor the most effective.

Laughing at myself and at the absurdity of whatever my fears are at that moment feels a whole lot better than the fear. Working on my novel is a lot more productive than worrying it will never get published. Attending a networking event is going to get me a lot more new coaching clients than pulling out the worry beads. A quick visit to The Daily Show to see Jon Stewart's take on our political scene puts it in perspective, all through the use of a little laughter.

Laughter breaks up all that negative energy. It makes me see how silly I am being and how unproductive my worry has caused me to be. Worry doesn't make fear go away. Laughing won't either. But it gets me pointed in a much better direction. A new chapter. Finding a new coaching client. A new blog.