Essay On Realistic Fear

Limited playing time on my travel ball team challenged my trust in myself. Making mistakes on the field became one of my biggest fears. During one major recruiting tournament in the summer prior to my junior year, I couldn’t properly field a ball that came my way. My performance in this tournament made me question my confidence and my ability to play at the college level. This lack of confidence I developed carried into my school work. I was afraid to answer questions in class and take charge

Common factors that can contribute to performance anxiety include; fear of performance failure, negative social evaluation and/or physical harm, as well as disruption of a well learned routine (Cox, p.201, 2007). The effects of these factors can be further heightened in correlation with importance of an event, or the level of competition. These fears and feelings of anxiety may affect the athlete’s perception of their abilities and hinder their self-confidence, which can be detrimental to their performance. Patterns of perfectionism can also lead to sport-related anxiety, mainly involving setting exceptionally high performance standards of oneself (Cox, p.202, 2007). Setting high standards can often be beneficial to a performance, but athletes that succumb to unrealistic thoughts, that nothing but a perfect/ideal performance is good enough, are more likely to experience negative emotions and heightened levels of anxiety due to the discrepancy between ideal and current self/situation (Koivula, Hassmén, Fallby, 2001).

Educational fears haunt me in every way imaginable and I will tell you why. One example of this is failing at learning something new like swimming, driving a car, learning how to play a sport. Other examples of this are failing at getting a job, being bad at a job, or failing a job interview. My last examples this are failing at passing a class, not going to a university, or not knowing what to do after college. I will now talk about why failing at learning something is a fear of mine.

When I was a freshman, I tried out for the dance team. It was a terrifying experience. I felt as if everything was going against me. The minutest thing appeared so menacing at the time. I didn’t only fear the actual tryout, but I had to imagine how utterly frightening it would be if I made the team.

The terrifying possibilities that come with facing one’s greatest fears are often enough to keep one from facing what truly horrifies them but also inspires and intrigues them. Fear can be the anxiety inducing emotion but it can also be the catalyst for one’s greatest achievements.  Many of us question whether the decisions and risks we take will result in a grounding breaking idea, or whether the path we’re on will further a future career. Instead of succumbing to fear, it paved the path to help me realize my metier.

     Native Son by Richard Wright is a piece of literature that is meant to demonstrate how fear in the white community drives society to label blacks as dangerous, immoral, and subhuman. The main character, Bigger Thomas, embodies all of the preconceptions and secret fears that people associate with black Americans. He lies, he steals, he is violent, and by the end of the story he is a rapist and a murderer. The first time he is given an opportunity to improve his family’s life, he tries to adapt, but because of a turn of fate he has to throw his chances away. Bigger wants to evade all of the stereotypes of “people like him.” Eventually he realizes that he has become what everybody fears most: a nigger. His

After a long day in classes and at practices, student athletes barely have time to relax at the end of the day because they have to stay on top of their work and catch up on their sleep so they are ready for the next big day ahead of them. These sacrifices are a daily routine for the athlete and they deserve to be rewarded with pay. Little changes alone can be very uncomfortable, but a huge switch like this can put a lot of stress on a student athlete. “The transition from high school to college can be stressful for any student , but recent evidence suggests that athletes may experience even greater levels of stress due to the dual demands of athletics and academics placed on them during their freshman year. Lazarus and Folkman have defined stress as the negative feeling that occurs when an individual feels unable to cope with the demands placed upon them by their environment. For the matriculating freshman student athlete, these demands may at times seem overwhelming” (Wilson ). Being a student athlete is an overwhelming roller coaster of new and exciting events, but have a hard time focusing on their work. Although some athletes have their education paid for, they should be compensated for their hard work, time, and effort put into their

They say that there is nothing to fear but fear itself, yet I tend to disagree. Our world is packed full of things to be afraid of. As a child, we are afraid of the dark or monsters hiding underneath our beds; but, as we grow with wisdom and age, those fears become bigger and more worldly. We fear things like terrorism or illness. The fear that consumes me most is that my best might never be enough.

“Too much stress, or bad stress, can cause performance anxiety, which hurts your health and does not allow you to play relaxed, confident, and focused in competition,” (Cohn). Pressure added from an athlete’s coaches, parents, and teammates, can become overwhelming for a student to maintain. Team dynamics can directly affect an athlete’s performance during the game. If an athlete is not performing at their best, they run the risk of not play in future games and causing disappoint to the team. Issues between teammates are often not expressed on an individual basis, but are kept to themselves and never addressed, which is a contributor to the many reports of depression and anxiety in student-athletes (Putukian). With many other stressors present in a student-athletes day-to-day life, the added pressures of team dynamics and performance can result in the development of a mental illness. Over 50% of male athletes and over 60% of female athletes face heavy stress related to their sport in the form of pressure to win, extreme anxiety, and fear (Stress). The stresses of having to do well, not only for yourself, but for the overall team, causes many student-athletes to carry stress into their

Embracing the fears that limit you can produce the feelings of owning or taking back your power. There is no better or empowering feeling. According to leadership studies, owning and understanding your body and mind are critical to your success. Being afraid is inevitable for us all, but it does not lead to or support being a success. Learning from fear and facing it is a step toward understanding and managing it. Knowing yourself can provide fruitful insights on how you approach life, as well as preparing you for your unlimited

They will also realize that student-athletes are responsible for taking care of their business on and off the field. There was a study that found that almost half of the male athletes and slightly more than half of the female athletes, who were involved in the study, implied that stresses like pressure to win, excessive anxiety, frustration conflict, irritation, and fear affected their mental and emotional health (Humphrey et al., 2000). This is important to know because this can later or even immediately affect a person’s confidence and self worth. Freshmen are not the only class that deals with stress, which will affect their performance. Although these stress factors are brought to their attention early in their careers, most do not seek help nor do they find a solution to their problem. It is important that coaches have sport counselors that sit in and talk with these often to insure they are doing ok. These athletes are psychologically and physiologically hurting and need

Life never goes as goes as planned, at one second your life can change completely and flip upside down. You never know what’s going to happen next. You can’t plan to win the lottery or when you are going to be in a car accident. Life isn’t always fair and you get hit with the worst you could ever dream of. My worst fear is to get an injury. And that exactly happened to me. An injury can hold you back from a lot of stuff especially when you don’t want it to come the most.

The Gift of Fear was a great book and I would like to review it. First off, The Gift of Fear is old, but is a great book to this day. Although it was pretty good, it had some major flaws and had some run on sentences. It sometimes felt like it dragged on and there were some chapters that it really did not need in it…

I believe that there is no fear in any person because the only one that can stop you and build fear is yourself and you can interfere with that by being fearless. There is nothing in sports and in life that you can not face for example, games, matches, races, insane heart racing events, struggles in daily jobs etc. The point of all these samples is to show that you can make it through anything just need to have that mindset. Do not be afraid of something or someone that is trying to outwork you in anything you have to go beyond the limit than everybody else. There is more to my belief other than sports like grades, family, and life.

Sports were never one of my strongest points. I could barely make it above average in physical education class so I was perplexed when my housemistress selected me as one of the athletes to represent my house in the annual inter-house competition. Apparently the house was running low on athletes and no one was willing to volunteer for the javelin throw. I grudgingly went ahead with it since there was no way out of the situation: then began the most stressful weeks I had ever experienced. Since my experience in the sport was non-existent, I had to invest double the effort put in by the other athletes. Every morning, I woke up at four o'clock to meet the coach while my fellow mates enjoyed the comfort of their beds. Majority of my time was spent on the school field. After weeks of seemingly endless training sessions and aching joints, the day assigned for the event was finally here. The competition was very keen since most of the athletes were adept in the sport. I watched on as each athlete took her turn and I could not help but envy the speed with which they ran toward the sector and the finesse they put in their posture as they threw the javelin. Each time an athlete made the mark, my self-confidence dropped a notch. The previous quietude inside me was suddenly gone. In its place was an overwhelming feeling of apprehension. I felt a strong urge to back out and it did not help that there was a little pesky voice in my head that kept on