The most fascinating thing about fear is that it only happens when we’re not experiencing danger in real-time.

This means, whatever it is that we feel afraid of, it’s not happening yet. Our minds are just preparing us. It’s a warning. A possibility.

And since it’s the modern world — where most people are relatively safe, unlike our ancestors — most of our supposedly actions were converted into thinking.

Because why act? After all, we’re safe.

Compare that to our ancestors — they had little to no time to think about possible dangers. Look, a tiger appears. Either they fight back or run.

See the difference? The pre-modern world was all about action. The modern world… all about overthinking.

Yes, we still act. But we also overthink a lot. We overthink our past mistakes and possible dangers. We fear that something might go wrong. And then, we’re all doomed.

In contrast, when we’re truly experiencing danger, fear won’t even register. No time to think or feel any fear… Real danger is in front of us. We are in it. We are one with life.

And so, action is the only option.

This is enlightening. It reveals that whenever we fear something and don’t act, the fear only grows stronger. And the more we think about what we fear, the more we feed that fear.

Fear feeds on inaction.

The opposite is to bypass unnecessary overthinking and just take action on whatever we think is right in that situation.

It’s probably not the best course of action right away, but at least we’re moving.

And that’s how we learn.