Face Your Fear, be Mad!

Have we ever come out of the house and see what people called as "madmen"? Yes, I mean it. I mean some crazy guy for real. What do you think of them? At the end of this paper, I will give you a different view about them. I will call what we have been calling as "madmen" to be "people who beyond their limits". It sounds "mad" is not it? Oh I mean, sounds "beyond the limits" is not it?

Please allow me to begin this article with an experience of mine. On May 5th 2017 I went to an artificial lake in Banten, West Java. This lake is called Quarry Jayamix Lake. This lake was made decades ago due to limestone mining activities for the manufacture of cement. However, due to environmental conditions that are not possible anymore, those mining activities have been closed. Here is a picture of the lake that I downloaded from viva.co.id – too bad I am bad at photography. This should be my masterpiece if I'm good at taking photos:

When I visited the lake, I spent few hours early just did "tourist stuffs" with my friend.  We just walked around the lake, climbed the cliffs, sat on the edge of the lake, and certainly took some photos. Yes although the weather at that time was not so good, at least we get some instagrammable photos. Yes seriously we all generation Z always do this, do not we?

After a few hours doing "tourist stuffs," something pulls out my interest. I saw some children, maybe 8 or 9 y.o. swimming in the middle of the 40-meters-depth-lake! Okay that's too dramatic, actually just a few meters from the shores, not really in middle. But I'm sure it's deep enough to drown them all! And the more surprising thing is that their dad letting them out like that was not an odd thing. Are not they crazy?! At that moment my mind started to fumble. I just did not get how could a father let his children swim in a lake with a depth of 40 meters without any safety! The only safety facility there is a traditional gethek boat. Are they not afraid to drown? What if there were dangerous creatures in the lake? What if it rained suddenly? What if there was lightning? What if the cliff around the lake collapsed? What if their feet suddenly cramped and drowned them? I kept thinking about what if this happens, what if that happens, until finally ....

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I went swimming with them and threw away all my fears and worries.

That time, I risked my precious thing, my own life on death. But in the other side, I totally believe in God's fate to me. If that time was my time to go, that was. But that was not!

One thing I get from my experience is that excessive fear does not take us anywhere! They will just keep us locking our feet in place and keep our brains constantly thinking about bad things that are even unappropiated to think about! Until finally our energy is drained away and we realize that it is too late to make a single decision.

Oops! Don’t get me wrong! I don’t say that fear is bad. I also realize that the fear placed correctly can make us think rationally and find many alternative solutions that can make us more able to achieve what we want. But what I emphasize is the fear that is not placed as it should be might shackle our steps and can even drop our dreams badly.

Whether we realize it or not, our lives are always overwhelmed by fear. Even fear for trivial things! We are afraid to get out of bed, we are afraid to check messages from the boss, we are afraid to take a shower in early morning, we are afraid to say good morning to the people we love, we are afraid to say thank you, we are afraid to say sorry, we afraid to open the door of the house, and other fears. Until we end up living like a sinner, reaching a point of too disincline to life but too afraid to die.

Do we want to live like this? Is this the life we want? Gently ask yourself.

It is not about how big your fear is. It is about how good you can handle them all.

Learn from The Master

For almost 21 years, there is one thing I always admire: madman. I always think of the madman as the supreme master in regulating fear. I really mean it! Look at them! Have you ever seen a crazy person scared? No, you absolutely never. It is because they do not fall in their fear, but they face it! They dare to run towards their own walls of limitations and destroy them. They risk everything they have! Their courage is not only in the mouth, but ingrained to the entire body. Is not that great? Is there any sane person who dares to do this?

Let us take a life lesson from the Supreme Master Chug of Fear: the madman or I prefer to call it the one who transcends the limitations. Let us learn to manage fear from within ourselves. Let us learn to put fear into place. And most importantly, let's be mad!