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恐れを克服することの大切さ
先日、日本で働く外国人女性をサポートする団体、"Foreign Executive Women" の主催するセミナーが開かれました。
テーマの一つとして取り上げられたのは、変化を妨げてしまう「恐れ」という感情です。
今回基調講演を行ったポーヴァーさんにとっても一番興味深い概念だったという「恐れ」は、幼いころからの私たちの人生にどんな影響を与えているのでしょうか?
Conquering fear
I was recently the keynote speaker at an amazing all-day event organized by and for foreign women in Japan
There is an organization in Japan called Foreign Executive Women (or "FEW" for short) that provides professional support to foreign women in Japan. FEW was founded in 1981 by two foreign women wishing to gain professional support from each other. It now has over 250 members and holds monthly speaker events as well as social events throughout the year. Its biggest event is its Career Strategies Seminar, held once every 18 months, with over 100 foreign women attending. This is the third time I have been the keynote speaker at this event, and every year it seems to get better and better.
Each year the seminar has a theme: This year the theme was a combination of two issues. The first issue was about identifying fears that we have about changing aspects of our lives and finding ways to deal with that fear. The second issue was about taking conscious steps to determine our own future and work toward our professional dreams
Fear was the most interesting concept to me. From a very young age I think we are taught to let fear rule a lot of our lives. That fear often prevents us from taking risks to change our lives, and change can be a great way for us to find out our true potential
For example, as children we are often taught to fear our parents: Our parents decide what is right and wrong. They reward us if we do something that they decide is "right" and punish us when we do something that they decide is "wrong." Many parents say that their children "cannot be told what to do." This is often used as a criticism of a child when he or she is showing signs of independent thought and action. These children are already their own person and have already made up their own mind about what is right or wrong.
When we start going to school, we are again in a situation where fear is encouraged. We are taught to respect but also to fear our teachers: I remember being quite terrified of some of my teachers! I didn't really do anything too naughty when I was at school, but I was still, somehow, often worried that a teacher would think I was doing something bad. At school, we are often afraid of not passing exams, or afraid of getting a bad report, which may then affect our chances to get into university, which may then affect our chances to get a good job. We are taught to believe that our entire lives depend on what happens during that very short time between the ages of 12 and 18. In reality, of course, we can study for anything throughout our whole lives. We can change careers if we really want to, and we can go to university at any age.
So all this fear that is encouraged in us as children can affect our ability to take risks as adults. Many people are unhappy in their job but afraid to change. Many people are unhappy in their relationships but are afraid to change.
Events like the FEW Career Strategies Seminar go a long way in helping people overcome their fears and changing their lives. Just walking into a room in Japan with over 100 foreign women, all enthusiastic to find out how they can improve their work lives, is an extremely powerful thing!
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- Conquering fear
- 恐れを克服する
- keynote speaker
- 基調講演者
- amazing
- 素晴らしい
- organized by and for 〜
- 〜が〜のために開いた
- for short
- 略して
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- Strategies
- 計画
- held once every 〜
- 〜ごとに1度開かれる
- theme
- テーマ
- a combination of 〜
- 〜を組み合わせたもの
- identifying 〜
- 〜の性格を明らかにする
- aspects
- 側面
- conscious
- 意識的な
- determine 〜
- 〜を決める
- concept
- 概念
- are taught to 〜
- 〜しなさいと教えられる
- let 〜 rule 〜
- 〜について〜の感情に従う
- prevents 〜 from
- 〜にさせない
- find out 〜
- 〜に気付く
- potential
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- parents
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- reward 〜
- 〜に褒美を与える
- right
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- punish 〜
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- wrong
- 間違った
- cannot be told what to do
- 言うことをきかない
- criticism
- 批判
- independent thought and action
- 自主的な考えと行動
- (are)their own person
- 人格を持った一人
- (have)made up their own mind about 〜
- 〜について自分で決めている
- is encouraged
- 奨励される
- respect 〜
- 〜を尊敬する
- being quite terrified of 〜
- 〜がとても怖かった
- naughty
- わんぱくな
- passing exams
- 試験に通る
- report
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- affect 〜
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- entire lives
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- go a long way in 〜
- 〜するのに大きな役割を果たす
- overcome 〜
- 〜を克服する
- enthusiastic
- 熱心な
- extremely
- とても