Everyone has fears in their lives. You may have a fear of heights. You might have a fear of the unknown. You may fear that no one likes you. No matter what the fear is, everyone has them. A lot of the time it’s looked at as a bad thing to have fears. They’re seen as limiting factors in life. They prevent you from really living. I’d like to challenge that notion though and say that fear is actually helpful in your life. They help push you to overcome something mentally. The process of trying to get over that fear can be a very powerful experience that translates to more confidence in your life. For that reason, I’m dedicating today’s thank you to fears and how they have pushed me to be a better person.

One of the biggest fears that I had in the past and that I guess I still have partially is the odd fear of calling people. I don’t mean calling friends but calling complete strangers and asking them for something. I honestly can’t explain exactly why I have that fear. It might be that I might look stupid if I ask the wrong thing. It might be I just am naturally more shy and it’s hard for me to have conversations. Whatever the fear is, I used to not want to call anyone at all.

I think that’s quickly changed in the past couple of years and a few factors went into this. One was KristaRose. She constantly pushed me to be more confident in myself and convince me that calling people is not usually a big deal so I shouldn’t be fearful. A second factor is that being part of an Emerging Leaders Program, you’re expected to solve problems in new situations that you aren’t used to. These two things in the past couple of years have really pushed me to get over that fear. I can’t say that I’m perfect right now, but I am more confident and more willing to approach people and get things done. I will continue to work on it more and more as time goes on but the sheer fact that I’m able to progress with this is something to be said about. It’s why I’m thankful that we have fears that we have to overcome. They really make you dig deep or ask for the proper support in order to get over them. I never want to let fear take over, I want to use it to motivate myself to be a better person.

Michael Lerma

Michael Lerma graduated the University of Notre Dame in 2009 with an Information Technology Management degree. He currently works for The Nielsen Company in their Emerging Leaders Program.