I'm afraid to walk in public, because people look at me. But I'm not going to stop. I'm afraid because if I want to commune with my friend Shad (Meier), I have to ask him to cut my chicken for me. But I did it. And I'm afraid to go back and see my teammates and coaches because I know that I'll feel envy. But I'm going to do it anyway. Because fear is just a feeling, and if you can acknowledge that fear, digest that fear and overcome it, the rewards are incredible.
Interpretation
Overcoming fear is essential for growth and connection with others.
In this quote, Steve Gleason expresses the struggles he faces with fear and anxiety in social situations, yet emphasizes the importance of confronting those fears to experience meaningful connections and personal growth. He acknowledges that fear is a natural feeling, but encourages taking action despite it, highlighting that embracing and overcoming fear can lead to significant rewards in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about facing personal challenges.
I have been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). It's a terminal disease with an average lifespan of two to five years post-diagnosis, and scientists don't know what causes it. ALS prevents your brain from talking to your muscles. As a result, muscles die. As a result, every 90 minutes people die. I am a person.
I think about death all the time. I think that's a good thing because we're all going to die, and the only thing we can control is how we are and what we're doing in the meantime.
We have all made mistakes in this life. How we learn from our mistakes is the measure of who we are.
Through adversity we find our heroes.
On becoming soldiers we have not ceased to be citizens.
The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.
Controversial means somebody who makes people think. And if you are afraid of people who will be against you, you might as well stay home and do nothing.
I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war.
Few of us will do the spectacular deeds of heroism that spread themselves across the pages of our newspapers in big black headlines. But we can all be heroic in the little things of everyday life. We can do the helpful things, say the kind words, meet our difficulties with courage and high hearts, stand up for the right when the cost is high, keep our word even though it means sacrifice, be a giver instead of a destroyer. Often this quiet, humble heroism is the greatest heroism of all.
You have two options when you approach a hostile checkpoint in a war zone, and each is a gamble. The first is to stop and identify yourself as a journalist and hope that you are respected as a neutral observer. The second is to blow past the checkpoint and hope the soldiers guarding it don't open fire on you.
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