The quick way to think about healthy fear is that it motivates us to make really better in some way, and to avoid bad outcomes. Here is how it works. If you are a procrastinator at all, when does your performance go up? Often, you come through just as a deadline approaches, which if not met, would result in some really undesirable outcome. For example, if you put off paying bills, when do you perform your absolute best at paying bills? On the last day that you can send it in and not get a penalty, or have the credit card canceled, or the lights go off. You become a stellar performer, 100 percent successful, because you fear reality.