Is Your Hunger Greater Than Your Fears? Part 2

What was once your Protection, is now a Prison

Imagine a little bird developing inside a shell. Without its shell the bird would be exposed to predators and turbulent weather and it wouldn’t survive so, it’s clear that the purpose of the shell is to provide protection that is essential to its growth and survival. Day after day, oblivious to what is taking place on the outside or the fact that there even is an ‘outside’, the bird exists safely within its spherical world.

Now, because the bird is a living being, it is also growing and after a while it starts getting uncomfortable inside. Increasingly, there is less and less room to move. At first it’s just a feeling of mild discomfort and the bird shifts this way and that trying to find a comfortable position however, with each day that goes by, it becomes more cramped inside and eventually the point comes where its very survival is at risk.

Finally, it just can’t take it any more! What was once its protection has now become its prison and if the little bird stays within the egg it will definitely perish. Here, the bird finds itself at a critical juncture and has an evolutionary decision to make: 1.Remain within the egg, the only world it has ever known and in doing so, die or 2. Do something that goes against every protective instinct it has ever had to date, this being, to peck through the walls which up until now have defined its world and ensured its safety.

In order to survive and evolve, its hunger for survival has to be greater than its fear of the unknown. The bird has to leave what was once its comfort zone and take flight to realize its destiny as a bird.

What all of this means to you

Now let’s talk about how this applies to your life. Peel back the layers of all the things that make us different from one another and you’ll find that basically, we all want the same things. We want to be loved for who we are, know that we’re safe and we belong, be valued and appreciated for what we do and grow to our full potential. You may have a few personal variations to this list, but it’s pretty much the same for everyone as psychologist, Abraham Maslow pointed out in the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’.

Therefore, within the context of what most of us want and need, the concepts of ‘hunger’ and ‘fear’ often appear like this:

Hunger

• The fundamental need to have what is essential for our physical survival: air, food, water, shelter, safety.
• The deep need to be loved and feel loved, to be treated with dignity and respect. 
• The desire to have our efforts, opinions and feelings acknowledged, valued and appreciated.
• The need to break free of the restrictions that are holding us back from being all that we are. 
• The desire to be a part of, and belong to, something greater than oneself and make a difference.
  

Fear

When we think of fear our immediate response may be to conjure up Hollywood movie images of terror, blind panic and dread. However, if we reframe fear to include not only those but also behaviors that are resistant and counter-productive to our personal growth, we will find that fear has many other faces.

Some examples of this broader concept of fear include; apathy, procrastination, blame, control, aggression, manipulation, lying, resignation, the ‘whatever’ attitude, letting things slide, choosing to remain invisible and avoidance, to name a few.

The seemingly endless roller coaster ride of wanting our needs met and fearing they won’t, can easily become the theme of our lives.

How do we get off this roller coaster ride? Be sure to come back and read my next blog for Part 3, the final installment of ‘Is Your Hunger Greater Than Your Fears.’