As Sartre so simply put it, “Acting is happy agony”.

Having to act and take responsibility for your actions in every single scenario you

find yourself in is quite daunting. Sartre speaks of freedom presenting itself to us as

anguish. Anguish is our natural response to realizing and facing the truth of our

complete freedom. When walking along a cliff, for example, you might feel

anguish to know that you have the freedom to throw yourself down to your imminent death.

Anguish is our distrust in our own decisions and abilities, the fear of being wrong or unable.

People flee from anguish. We cease to act simply due to being too scared. For example,

a person might want to start their own dream business. They know they are free to do so,

but also realize it would be a great risk. Although they know they are technically able,

they still doubt they can handle the pressure and responsibility. They also fear failure and thus,

they never dare to open that business. We want to know for sure whether a decision is the right one,

whether we can trust ourselves to follow through on something, whether something will work out or

not. Whenever we cannot have this certainty, we refuse to act. We see our anguish as a threat,

or a reason not to do something. However, feeling anguish is normal.

We will always have to decide for ourselves, take full responsibility for our decisions,

and naturally we will always feel anguish in doing so. In other words:

fear is unavoidable if you want to act. Anguish is a condition for acting,

Sartre concludes. And since anguish is a condition for acting, it will always be present,

we will never overcome our fear of taking action. People wanting to overcome their fear will keep

waiting their whole lives. Since trying to overcome and erasing our fears is impossible,

there is only one option left: acting despite it. Or, to put it another way: facing your fears.

Sartre urges you to never stop yourself from doing anything just because it scares you. Instead,

fear is something you should learn to welcome! Feeling anguish is a clear sign

of being a free actor, after all. Make sure to act despite - or even because - it scares you,

for you will only learn how to live freely by fully embracing your fears.