Ten years ago, if I had been asked to describe the definition of fear, my explanation would have consisted of stories about scary monsters or spiders. Today, I know that fear is so much more than being cautious of nighttime closet and under-the-bed dwellers. Fear is constantly alive inside of all of us, greatly affecting the decisions we make each day.
The act of conforming to what is most accepted in society is already an extremely growing trend. This act has been drilled into our minds ever since we were little, contributing a major part to the reason we are afraid to speak out today. On top of not wanting to stray from the norm, many of us often take the easy way out, or try to find the quickest way possible in order to finish things. We do not take the time to form our own opinions, because we are too focused on getting things done, and getting them done now. However, rushing through important tasks and decisions only causes the problems to continue to build on top of one another, resulting in enormous messes that nobody ever wants to solve. If we were to take the time needed to finish just one thing correctly at a time, we would start fixing things instead of covering them up and waiting for someone else to fix them.
These acts of conformity and laziness go hand in hand with the fear concept. We spend so much time worrying about how we will be perceived; we forget that we are losing the precious time needed to get things accomplished. Thus, we rush through these things. Fear scares us into situations, and it can also scare us out of them. The solution to fighting our fears is to figure out the types of fears that are scaring us, and distinguish them from the ones put on us by society and ourselves.
The more people realize the importance of hard work, determination, and confidence, the easier this world will be to live and work in. Problems arise from other problems, and when no one wants to solve the first problems in the beginning, things only get worse from there. Pushing responsibilities onto others sets the stage, making it seem like it is perfectly okay to do. Thus, the reason taking responsibility for our own actions is a vanishing movement in society today.
In my honest opinion, what this world desperately needs is a wake-up call. The government is not going to protect everyone from everything and anything. In fact, we are leaning on them far too much than is necessary. The government is playing a big part in setting the stage for what is right and what is wrong. People look to higher officials to fix all their problems instead of taking the responsibility or trying to get themselves out of situations. This is causing major issues because the government in this country was originally built to help us, not control us. Our laziness is causing us to come across as helpless, ignorant citizens, making it effortless for the government to take more of our freedoms away.
We have to start sticking up for what we believe in, and showing some sort of passion if we want to see any sort of real change occur in this country; let alone in the world. If we continue to waste time, worrying about what others think, and scaring ourselves into conforming, then we do not have the right to complain. The only way to fix things is for each of us to fight our fears, stand up for what we believe in, and let our voices be heard. Our founding fathers did not give their blood, sweat, and tears, fighting to make this country the land of the free and the home of the brave, only to have it taken over by the lazy and uneducated.