The Flaws of Fearless

As a kid, I used to think I needed to grow up to be fearless. I thought soldiers were fearless. I was told to be successful in business, I must be fearless. I thought being fearless and courageous were the same. They are not. In fact, they are drastically different.

Congenital insensitivity to pain and anhidrosis (CIPA) is a rare neurological disorder causing an inability to feel pain. Those affected have been known to break a bone and continue to use the compromised limb because they didn’t immediately feel the break, or they end up with frostbite because the pain of an exposed appendage didn’t register in the brain. Does this make the individual tough? No, it just puts them at risk. It’s not toughness because it wasn’t a deliberate decision to work through the pain. They unconsciously acted, not weighing the consequences of their choices. In fact, victims of this condition incur more damage because they miss the pain and don’t get the chance to make appropriate decisions in the wake of those signals.

In the same way, a lack of fear does not make one brave, it makes him reckless. A lack of fear is like a lack of pain: it’s not a superpower, it’s a liability. To be fearless is to be exposed, not empowered.

Courage is not the absence of fear; much to the contrary, it is deliberate action in its very presence. It’s working through those emotions and moving forward despite them. Courage is calculated. Courage is conscious. Courage doesn’t ignore fear, it conquers it.

Please understand, I don’t claim to be courageous. I don’t have this all figured out. But I am working on it. I must beat the coward inside of me into submission every day. But I do know that some of the best, most impactful decisions of my life were made amid great fear.

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