Fearless by Eric Blehm
I randomly selected this book while going to the water fountain inside my housing unit. The books front cover was missing, and the pages looked worn, but the title sucked me in because my son and I are reading a book together called Victory Favors The Fearless, and this books title is called Fearless. I thought this must be Law of Attraction at play in my world because what we are focused on appears in our reality, so I don’t think it’s a coincidence this book appeared before me.
This book left me incredibly humbled and inspired once I read it. Adam Brown’s life story started from very humble beginnings in the great city & state of Hot Springs, AR. This made an immediate connection as I’m from Arkansas and have spent a considerable amount of time in Hot Springs. My father in law attended Lake Hamilton High School, and his father was a teacher at the high school that Adam Brown attended. I have read quite a few books about former Navy Seal’s and their lives, but the author here took a different approach with his narrative.
What does Fearless mean to you? How does one gauge his or her own fear factor? What are the mental exercises we can perform to overcome our fears? Do we ever learn to operate in fearlessness? These were a few of the questions I was left pondering to myself after reading this book.
Through this book, and other books I’ve read, I understand fear to be an unpleasant emotion that expects the worst to happen. I gauge my fear factor based on if I’m able to make my move. Sometimes fear can freeze me, and make me second guess myself. I’ve learned to overcome my fears by taking action even when I don’t feel I can. It’s amazing what happens when we begin to move. Action creates momentum, and momentum can churn itself into positivity if curated appropriately.
I believe we can learn to operate in fearlessness once we learn how to counterattack fear with faith. Every feeling has a helper attached to provide it’s polarity. Sadness needs love. Anger needs peace. Anxiety needs confidence. Fear needs faith. Throughout this book, there are countless examples dating back to Adam’s Brown’s childhood where he was consistently facing and challenging his fears.
If it was him being the smallest player on the football field, and him lining up to show is toughness and resilience, he faced it. If it was him jumping off the bridge of a famous highway into Lake Hamilton to test a theory he concocted, he faced it. If it was him leading the charge into deserted Taliban infested communities in the uncharted regions of Afghanistan to take down IED bomb making terrorists regimes, he faced it. If it was him that overcame multiple jail sentences, and being addicted to smoking crack cocaine, Adam Brown faced this fear and overcame it. His ability to constantly face his fears inspires me.
Adam Brown was a typical young American kid who was raised by two loving parents, and had 2 other siblings. He was sort of a reckless daredevil as a young kid and through his teenage years, but somewhere along the path of his mid teens he began to drift away from his upbringings. He began experimenting with drugs and eventually became hooked on crack cocaine. It was a nasty debilitating addiction that took him to the pits of his lions den. He lost the confidence of his family, and wound up in jail. It was inside a jail cell that he had a deep conversation with God seeking help and redemption.
Letter he wrote while sitting in jail:
“God, for the first time in my life, I trust you. And God, I thank you that I’m here in jail. God, whatever you’ve got planned for my life, I trust you. God, I’m sorry for my sins. And today, the best way I know how, I ask you to come into my life. Come into my heart and save me. I want to begin a brand new life. Amen.”
I can relate to this prayer because I’ve also had this personal in depth and real conversation with God. I remember a conversation I had with God when I was seeing how my legal situation may turn out. I was on my knees inside of a small closet at our home praying to God the inner turmoil I was feeling would go away. In the dark closet, God revealed to me I was going to prison. I remember screaming out all alone to myself no! It was God telling me in a very direct way I was going to have to go through this. The pain was so intense as I felt everything I had worked so hard for in my life all be in jeopardy because of simple choices!
At the peak of this emotional mountainous escapade and conversation with God, I told him I trusted him. I relented that if prison was what I had to face, then let’s get the show on the road, and I prayed for his guidance and help with the process. Just like God heard Adam Brown’s prayer and resurrected his life through his pain, God has done the same thing with me, and I’ve transformed into a better person, the person I have wanted to become, the person I knew was inside of me, and I can truthfully say it took coming to prison for my transformation to take place.
Though his criminal activity would have him ineligible for the military, he had a friend who’s father was a high ranking Navy officer that vouched for him to be given the opportunity to serve his country. After joining the Navy, he quickly new he wanted to be apart of the elite fighting force of the Navy Seals. He faced the fears and challenges to earn his Trident badge, and once inside this club of elites, he continued to level up to the specialty Navy Seals unit tasked with the most dangerous missions performed on Earth.
Throughout his career, he faced many setbacks, but his favorite hashtag was “I Got It.” He was supported by a loving wife whom he met during his addictive struggles and everyone tried to pull his wife away from him because very few believed in him because of his past. They had a forever instant love connection and birthed 2 beautiful children. They faced constant financial troubles and emotional setbacks while he tried out for the Navy Seals. His wife constantly sacrificed herself for him because she believed in him despite what the critics thought. I believe she believed in him because she saw how he attacked challenges with zest and valor. She loved the way despite the torture he put her through, when it was all said and done, she adored his honesty in his struggles, she admired him for displaying his weaknesses which made him strong.
He lost his dominant eye in a shooting training exercise. He lost his dominant fingers when the Humvee he was riding in crashed and he heroically put everyone in the vehicle’s life before his by tending to their injuries and ignoring his own career ending injuries. With both of these setbacks, guess what he did? He faced the fears of losing a career he worked so hard for and dug in and overcame his setbacks with optimism. He quickly learned to shoot with his left eye and left hand with supreme accuracy. He became a member of the highly classified Seal Team 6, which have been credited with taking down Osama Bin Laden.
In the end, Adam Brown ended up losing his life on a high security mission that ended up saving countless lives. His team disassembled and IED (improvised explosive devices) terrorist cell responsible for over 2000 road side bombs a month. They decreased the amount of roadside bombs by 79% by taking out the organizers of these terrorist networks. “This was one of the greatest victories in the war, but few in the government grasped, and the public did not even realize that this offensive was executed almost entirely by two squadrons of Navy Seals.” His work on this planet continues live with his story.
At his funeral in Hot Springs, AR, over 1000 people attended. My in law who graduated from Lakeside High School, the same school Adam Brown attended informed me there is an annual 5k run each year done in his memory. My inspiration in this story swelled hope inside my soul because I am on a daily journey in facing my fears. One of the fears I’m vulnerable to is the fear of making the wrong decision.
I believe the root of my fear of making the wrong decision is probably linked to the trauma I faced and deal with by coming to federal prison. I wasn’t a person that had many run-in’s with law enforcement growing up, and I had a strong support system from my parents and a close knit family. Of course I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve been a calculated person when it comes to making decisions big or small. Yes I’m guilty of the white collar crime I committed, but never once did I ever think the crime I committed would land me in prison. I didn’t think that was my reality, but it was. I was delusional thinking very irrationally, and choosing not to know the seriousness of the choices I was making.
In summary, Adam Brown’s story resonates to my life story in similar ways mentioned above. He inspired onto me the quest to fulfill my purpose in this lifetime, and be a beacon of hope through the legacy I will leave behind. Everyone has some degree of legacy they leave, and the great ones leave a legacy that continues to influence and lead other souls who are in this Earth school. I have a desire to build and leave a lasting legacy first and foremost for my family, but also for others who I have had the opportunity to positively lead and influence through my work as a boxing trainer and life coach. Fearless has inspired me to have the unrelentless courage to face my fears and take charge of my life with hard work, a positive can do mindset, and relentless optimism to overcome any challenge in route to greatness.