Nothing to fear, but fear itself.

"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself" (presumably written by Napoleon Hill for Franklin D. Roosevelt)
It was a perfect timing yesterday, when I got the chance to hear this quote and also test it.
I was on my way to the dentist, after two years pause since the last visit. Needless to say I was SCARED, especially because 13 years back I had a major repair on the same tooth - without any anesthetic what-so-ever (traumatizing experience..).

Anyway, I got to the dentist in 5 minutes after hearing the quote. The lady doctor was busy with something else and invited me to go directly into the consulting room.
After waiting for one minute, the solution struck me.
Instead of delaying everything and waiting for her to invite me onto the chair, then ask me to open my mouth - with the syringe in her hand, I took the initiative in order to ease my fear. Don't worry, I didn't take a tranquilizer or sting myself with anesthetic :) (although I was kind of taking into account those solutions too :D).
Instead, I sat alone in the chair and got accustomed with it (it was quite conformable). Then, we made some jokes when the lady doctor got in and saw me just laying there.
Next, when the sprayed anesthetic numbed my gums sufficiently, I told her that I'm ready for the shot.

What I did was to take the tough decisions myself, rather than waiting until I had no other alternative.
It turned out to be the best experience I ever had at the dentist. It wasn't perfect, because I didn't manage to stay relaxed all the time, but it was way different than the previous ones.
Where can we apply this? Well.., I can think of many situations where instead of delaying the inevitable and just waiting for something to happen; we can do everything in our own terms and drastically improve the situation.
So, fear only the fear and don't loose the chance to turn an unpleasant situation into a nice learning experience.