On an evolutionary level, fear makes sense…to most. Back when life was far more survival-centred, having a keen instinct of fear was pretty effective. It allows people to access, act and reflect in certain situations. But now that we live in a much more general era, fear has actually become useful. In fact, some say it’s so useful that it allows them to innovate in their daily lives.

Fear can be described as a reaction in a stressful situation that causes a fast heart-beat, heavy breathing and, in some cases, severe anxiety. Although fear is inevitable, how we take fear isn’t which means we don’t have to experience the same discomfort every time we’re scared.

“The way we take fear matters and can influence our lives positively in most cases.”

There are so many circumstances out there that if fear was used positively, a creative train of thought would go through our head. For example, you have a paper due the next day in university. You haven’t even started and your professor will fail you if you don’t hand it in on time. Fear settles in. Now most people will react to this and fall under the pressure; however, for those that use that fear as motivation, it becomes a key to all the thoughts locked up.

You see, when our brain is scared, we react by going over the scarce times in our life. Although this is normal, you have the ability to use the fear as fuel. Fear is a very powerful reaction which means it possesses the ability to overcome other emotions. Rather than falling to fear and letting it cause discomfort and harm, you can use it to clear your mind and become laser focused on the task in front of you. It’s this power that lets people innovate.

Most think to innovate, it requires creativity and to be creative you must be exposed to creativity. However, this is all wrong. We live in a generation where whatever we need is at our fingertips and what comes next can be scary…to most. The fear of what comes next is the exact fuel driving those passions. You could say fear is the reason why we’ve become so technologically advanced. Elon Musk for say, never would have continued if he was scared what would happen to his rockets for Space-X. But it turns out, fearing what could happen if you don’t continue is actually more scary than if something were to go wrong while trying.

Innovation in our world today is something that we need desperately. It’s what keeps cars on the road and planes in the sky. It’s that common wealth of knowledge of what could happen next that is the very reason why we look ahead ourselves. However, humans are wired in such a way that allows them to accept what they have and ignore what they could have. Change is very scary.

The vast majority of the population see fear as the most uncomfortable emotion of them all but, the vast majority of the population also use it improperly. You see, without fear, there’d be no Zuckerberg or Jobs or Musk or Gates. If all of these people were “scared” of what they were doing, the world would be diverse, much more than people would have liked. Fear and innovation tie hand in hand but people are failing to realize the ideology of it. 

It takes bravery for people that thrive in innovation and we find that fear is sometimes the barrier between us and conception. Don’t be afraid to become the next Jobs or Gates, use fear in the right way and innovate…just do it !