How to make fear your life mentor

Alex Mathers
3 min readSep 17, 2024

Fear whispered, ‘This will terrify you.’

I replied, ‘Thank you, friend.’

Little did I know, this conversation would transform my life.

When I was a teenager, I was often limited by fear. I would be shivering in my shorts playing rugby, clutching the muddy ball on a frosty English Tuesday morning, two lads running towards me, and I’d be terrified. I took that fear as a sign.

A sign that Rugby ‘wasn’t my sport.’ A sign that this game was to be endured and — ideally — avoided.

Rugby didn’t go well for me because I took this feeling seriously. It affected my performance on the field and made me weak, miserable, and vulnerable.

But at other times in my life, I would feel fear, do the thing as best as I could, and come out of it feeling invincible. For example, I’d be charging across a field in a different context: during a military exercise in school cadets, which I loved.

I’d be leading a group, heavy gear jangling, holding a rifle, shouting at the top of my lungs, adrenaline firing, under enemy blank fire. This was enlivening and exciting. I was feeling what could be described as fear, but I interpreted it more as excitement.

This experience was similar to being on the rugby pitch. But my response was very…

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Alex Mathers
Alex Mathers

Written by Alex Mathers

Resilience and brand growth. Triple your productivity today using my checklist when you subscribe: https://alexmathers.co/

Responses (3)

What are your thoughts?

It is a direct reflection of our mental state.

Rightly said!

Enjoyed reading this. Our emotions stem from our thoughts. Our mental response to "danger" is what makes the difference when facing challenging situations. Fear starts with the thought and eventually manifests itself physically. If we can change our…...