Fear of Knowledge

In the lord of the rings series, there is one ring that rules all the other rings. This is kinda like that.

The root of all other fears is a direct resultant of the purposeful avoidance of knowlege

Although this fear sounds fictitious, you have it. I have it. We all have it. I suffer from it. Don’t believe me? Here goes nothing.

If you look at the 4 universes of where this fear could exist:

known known / known unknown / unknown known / unknown unknown

This can only exist in the unknown known and unknown unknown quadrants… because if you knew it, you wouldn’t be afraid of it. What I want you to do in this exercise is acknowledge your fear and try to focus your time on the Unknown Unknown fears.

Known Unknown

Have you ever experienced anxiety as you await results? Exam results? Pregnancy results? Cancer results? Disease results? Do you have any cavities in your teeth? Or, are you like me, and too afraid to even go to the dentist to even see if you have cavities?

I’m just getting going… are you afraid to check your bank account? Are you afraid to look at your stocks or your portfolio when you sense that things are bad?

Are you afraid to check your voice mails? Are you afraid to check your phone to get your text messages? Are you afraid to read your email? Are you avoiding something out there that you know about that you wish you didn’t have to worry about?

Unknown Unknown

This is the most limiting factor in your life. Are you afraid to be somewhere else doing something else, a completely unfamiliar situation?

What would you do if I told you that you would make a great yacht salesman in Miami, FL? You probably hadn’t even ever considered that as a sustainable lifestyle possibility. You should be ashamed of yourself for not considering career choices like that, and the fact remains that because you have not you will never have choices like that.

Taking a step back, and considering it, should you be more afraid of spending half an hour a day considering wildly crazy opportunities like that and trying to prepare yourself mentally for them as they arise or should you be more afraid of what will happen if you continue to live life out according to your current perspective? There are many forms of opportunity that you should know more about:

1. Money. How many financial opportunities have you looked through in the past week? Have you tried to value a company or part of a company? Have you looked at the local job ads that are looking for people like you? Have you considered relocating to find such a job?

2. Relationships. When’s the last time you walked by someone who you thought it would be nice to say hi to but were afraid of the knowledge of how they might respond if you were to say hello? Odds are that you’re regretting your actions as you reminisce of your miserable existence that self perpetuates. Try catching yourself next time and saying hello. Be ready to actually spend time selling yourself to this person and go as far as to persuade them to stop whatever they were doing in order to hang out for a quick 15 minute conversation about who knows what? Doesn’t matter. If you never try you will always fail and always regret the predisposition of never saying hello.