Boxing gloves

Picture of a boxing ring in Cuba where I trained a few times.

Fear.

Every time I sit down to write a blog post it happens.  As I’m writing those first words it feels as I’m being bombarded by a storm of fearful thoughts designed to stop me from continuing.  The experience is almost paralyzing and sometimes I lose the battle,  get “distracted,” and stop writing.

The thoughts are normally —

  • What are you doing?
  • You are not a writer.
  • What if people reject your writing?
  • What if people don’t like your posts?

The worst one is

“Why don’t you just quit. This is a terrible topic.”

What is all of this?

FEAR.

These thoughts are all grounded in some type fear.  But what exactly is fear? One of the definitions in dictionary.com describes fear as

“an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.”

The key word here is emotion.  And emotion is a feeling. I’m no expert on word origins, but it seems that fear = feelings.

Don’t know about you, but I can’t trust my feelings too often. If I only did the things I felt like doing I wouldn’t accomplish anything.  I rarely feel like exercising, cleaning-up, writing a budget, or starting my taxes.

More importantly, if we relied on our feelings we’d never experiment with anything outside of our comfort zones.  And that’s where personal growth happends. We’d never

  • Embark on a challenge
  • Set HUGE goals
  • Attempt something we could fail
  • Give a speech infront of an audience

and many other things we can put in the “scary” column of life.

What I’ve discovered so far about fear is this:

  1. Fear is relentless and is always looking for way in.
  2. The more we fight back against fear the stronger we get.
  3. Accepting fear prevents us from pushing our comfort zones.

I’m not sure of the best way to fight fear, but Embracing It seems to help. But we also have to recognize it. I like what Eleanor Rossevelt said:

Do one thing every day that scares you.

For me, clicking the blue “Publish” button on my blog feels like I’m of punching fear in the face. Bam! I’m still scared of sharing my thoughts and ideas, but this is my way taking the fight to fear itself.

Unless we’re doing something stupid or dangerous, fear is a sign we’re on the right track.

What is fear holding you back from accomplishing?

 

 

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