Collier example essay topic
365 words
In the article 'Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name,' James Lincoln Collier explains that anxiety is a very common part of our life in our society and that to defeat anxiety is to confront it and face it as we grow and learn from it instead of backing away. Collier uses several of his personal experiences and explains how each helped him to overcome his anxiety. With each obstacle that he faced, he developed three basic rules for himself. Collier had a chance to go on a trip to Argentina with his roommate, Ted. Being away for two months sounds exciting but he is having a second thought, and he end up turning down the invitation. It scared him of being in a new, strange country. He regret ed by not going through the Argentina trip, and it taught him a lesson. This lesson made him developed his first rule: 'do what makes you anxious, don't do what makes you depressed. ' He also found out that the person he admired, Duke Ellington, still has stage fright, even though he has been performing for more than thirty years, and by knowing that, Ellington inspired Collier.
After doing a couple of interviews, he noticed that he is not that scared anymore. He had benefited and discovered from the process of psychologist call 'extinction. ' Which he had came up with his second rule: 'you " ll never eliminate anxiety by avoiding the things that caused it. ' Collier had put out his anxiety by confronting it; in addition, Collier developed his third rule: 'you can't learn if you don't try. ' To illustrate his third rule, some years ago he had an offer to do a writing assignment that will require him to three months of travel to Europe. Furthermore, Collier is unable to speak French but it didn't stop him on accepting the assignment.
In the end, Collier points out that 'the new, the different, is almost by definitions scary. But each time you try something, you learn, and as the learning piles up, the world opens to you. '.
