SGPsychStud: Fear and Hope in Life

I have been thinking about it.  What are the inner motives  and reasons for the things we do?  I believe this is the question that all psychologists ask.

Here's my answer:  I believe that two of these unconscious motives that hinder our behaviours are Fear and Hope.

How much of your life is controlled by your fears and hopes that you have? Are you able to control your fears and hopes?


FEAR:
In my opinion, our fear causes us to do things.  If we fear that we will not do well, we practice more and harder at what we are doing.  Fear causes us to stay at our comfort zone, in the fear that if we move out of it, we may lose what we currently have,  People often lose sleep or decrease their quality of sleep due to fear.  Fear can be a result of your past experiences, your current feelings and emotions, or even the unknowns of the future.  But regardless of where it is from, it does hinders us from performing at our best.
I have written two posts on the topic of fear in the last 12 months:
http://sgpsychstuff.blogspot.sg/2013/12/whats-there-to-fear.html
http://sgpsychstuff.blogspot.sg/2014/06/fear-of-failures-in-studying.html

HOPE:
Some people believe that hope is the propelling force for people to do amazing things, things that they will not believe that they are capable of.  With hope, we have a goal, something to aim for and to work towards.  But what if these goals are not achievable?  Are you going to continue working towards them?  Even worse, what if they are achieved?  What else are you going to work towards?

One common goal or hope of some Singaporeans are to earn as much money as possible.  That's barely achievable, for the pure reason or question of "How much is enough?"  If the hope was to buy a landed property in Singapore and you slogged many years to finally reach that goal, what is the next hope then?  Being aimless in life is worse than working hard towards an impossible dream, as we would be going through life like a zombie, without any aim.      

Having fears and hopes are parts of a normal human cognition, i.e. it is normal that people have fears and hopes.  However, this may lead to people having external locus of control in your life, attributing unwanted events and results to external reasons like luck, the unreachable goal, or other people hindering your progress.

In my opinion, always believe in yourself and your abilities.  When performing or doing your work, do not fear or worry about your progress and/or hope that you will perform well.  Just focus on what you should be doing at the moment.  Be in the moment and experience flow.  Only by focusing on the current moment, you will perform at your best.

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