Fear has a beautiful way of paralyzing us. Not only does it do that, but it also leaves you with regrets afterwards. It’s an emotion that we can’t stop from coming, but we can choose how to react to it.
Sometime in January 2020, we had increasing cases of a viral hemorrhagic fever taking down my people. Many people knew its name – Lassa Fever – but most do not know the facts related to its prevention. Worse still were the less-educated population who are also, most likely, not savvy with technology and social media, thereby limiting their access and interpretation of information.
In a bid to disseminate information on necessary preventive measures against the virus, I made an approximately 7-minutes-long video in Igbo language (my native language) where I encouraged users to learn and also play it for their relatives/pals who do not have a working knowledge of English language and social media. It was a beautiful video, but….
… fear visited me. I NEVER posted that video! Why
1. I feared being ridiculed
2. I felt it’ll appear somewhat unprofessional and
3. that the video was too long and with a poor quality
Fast forward to 21st March 2020, the era of coronavirus. The world was unveiling several actions just to contain COVID-19: WHO, NCDC, FMOH were giving us daily updates and many pieces of information were unrolling from several sources. In one of the WhatsApp groups, I belong to, a colleague posted a link to the YouTube video she made on limiting fake news about the virus and creating awareness of proper preventive measures against the virus. But guess what, her video was approximately 10 minutes long, made in the same “IGBO LANGUAGE”, and about the same grade of mobile device was used in taking her records.
While I was limiting my competence, someone else was pruning and honing her existing skills and availabilities. I would have probably saved a life if I had done the needful. ? I lost my chance then and accepted my shameful price of zero action, updated my lessons-learned register, slept, and picked myself back up.
I’ve learnt my lessons and that’s why you’re even seeing this post today.
Be like my colleague and the current me and dare the world!
Has fear ever paralyzed you? Brush it off, learn from it and share your experience with us. … like this article? Please leave a word in the comment section and share it with your friends.
Truly yours,
Dr. STM
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