I used to be afraid of many things and I probably still am.
That being said, I did reach a point in my life where the thought of not doing or experiencing things because of fear or because of losing a false idea of security scares me even more.
One could say that at this point, I actually welcome fear because it serves as an indicator of me actually being emotionally invested into something.
And pursuing something that you are invested in is one of the most satisfying things one can do.
Yeh, I see where you're coming from, totally, and I actually explore the concept of fear showing us how much we care about a given situation or outcome in another piece I've written. Fear, or nervous excitement, shows us that this thing, lets just say, an event with tangible outcome, like an exam is worth investing effort into. In a way it's a measure worth.
Dealing with fear is a skill which is good because skills can be trained and improved. With enough practise, you can face your fears without giving into a fight or flight response. Pausing and thinking makes scary things much less scary and helps someone to figure out the troublesome topics.
Exactly, it's all about increasing your capacity to deal with it in incremental levels of intensity. You're right in what you say about stopping to pause, as well. It's the responsive vs reactive mindset.