Fear and Bravery are inseparable siblings

As we seem to ride from one crisis to another these days, I think it is helpful to look to history to see how brave people would rise above the fray and help to lift others away from the anxiety of the moment.

Probably one of my favorite quotes from American history is the time when America seemed to be falling apart. The Great Depression of the 1930s had just begun and millions had lost their jobs and banks had failed and these same people lost their savings. And the sitting US president said and did nothing to intervene in the economic calamity that was affecting everyone.

But the voters overwhelmingly chose a new President who said he would use the government to help the people

Franklin Delanor Roosevelt was born with great wealth and privilege, but like all of us, he experienced many setbacks in his life. The most challenging was to be permanently crippled by polio. For the rest of his life, he was not able to walk without assistance. He ignored the disability and persevered to become a great leader in politics and eventually the president of the United States at a time when the economic and political fabric of the nation was falling apart. He ran for president with the promise to use the government to help people in need. Through a series of speeches, people came to believe him and he was elected the 32nd President of the United States.

So when he gave his inaugural address, he proposed many things to try and turn the ruin around, but he reminded his fellow citizens that even though we can’t predict the future we can frame how we respond to tomorrow with the idea that the only thing we really have to fear is the crippling emotional state of fear.

Below is a short video that shows him uttering his famous phrase. (BTW, he turned out to be correct and he led the nation out of the depression and to a successful end to WWII.)

So again you might look to the past to help you manage today and find a better path to tomorrow.