‘The balance between courage and fear is where the magic lies’

We tread carefully between the two, because we cannot do without either.

New Delhi | Updated: January 27, 2020 09:14 AM IST

3 min read

When we are young, we have many aspirations and dreams for ourselves. We envision growing up and becoming a certain person, doing a certain kind of thing, making a living out of what we love, etc. We all have dreams and we all have plans. But, what happens when life throws at us a curveball, and our dreams go crashing? Do we give up and resign, or do we keep the fight going?</p> We tread carefully between fear and courage, because we cannot do without either. While not having fear can make us do stupid things, lacking courage can hold us back from trying new things.</p><amp-img src="https://data.indianexpress.com/election2019/track_1x1.jpg" alt="" width="1px" height="1px" style="display:none;"></amp-img> Public Speaker and Disability Equality Advocate Cara E. Yar Khan, too, had plans for her life. But they had to be altered when she got diagnosed with hereditary inclusion body myopathy or HIBM — a rare disease of the muscles — that made her wheelchair-bound. “…what was most disheartening was to listen to other people advise me to limit my ambitions and dreams, and to change my expectations of what to expect from life… The fact that someone who wasn’t me was putting limitations on my dreams and ambitions was preposterous. And unacceptable. So I ignored them,” Khan says in her Ted talk.</p> We can challenge life, instead of letting life challenge us. (Designed by Gargi Singh)

We tread carefully between fear and courage, because we cannot do without either. While not having fear can make us do stupid things, lacking courage can hold us back from trying new things.

Public Speaker and Disability Equality Advocate Cara E. Yar Khan, too, had plans for her life. But they had to be altered when she got diagnosed with hereditary inclusion body myopathy or HIBM — a rare disease of the muscles — that made her wheelchair-bound. “…what was most disheartening was to listen to other people advise me to limit my ambitions and dreams, and to change my expectations of what to expect from life… The fact that someone who wasn’t me was putting limitations on my dreams and ambitions was preposterous. And unacceptable. So I ignored them,” Khan says in her Ted talk.

Speaking about her love for adventures and passion for life, she says, “When I face obstacles, fear doesn’t necessarily immediately set in, because I assume that one way or another, I’ll figure it out.”

Khan then goes on to describe her Grand Canyon adventure — one that they filmed — an inspirational take on challenging the challenges that life presents, and making the most out of situations.

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“The expedition, all that planning and the trip itself, showed me a level of fear I had never experienced before. But more importantly, it showed me how boldly courageous I can be… It was scary, it was stressful, it was exhilarating… Life is really just a lesson in finding the balance between fear and courage,” she says.

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