Seven years ago, sans children, my husband and I went with my family to Maui. One of the things we got to do was hike to some waterfalls to swim. When we reached the first waterfall, I didn’t go into the water. Not that I’m scared of water (okay, maybe I’m a little nervous about swimming in the ocean – but that’s what Jaws will do to you); I just don’t like cold water.
So I sat on the shore for an hour, working up the gumption to go in and watching the rest of the group having a great time swimming underneath the waterfall. Finally, I mustered up enough courage to wade in the shallow part and then I dove in. Soon after, it was time to go, but now I didn’t want to get out. I was having too much fun!
Sometimes in life there are things we want to do but don’t because they look too hard, too scary, too big, too (fill in the blank). But you’ll never know what you can do – write a novel, travel to a new place, learn a language, make a change within yourself – until you try.
Too often we let our fears (particularly fear of failure) get in the way. The title of a book I read several years ago, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, says it all. Feel the fear, but don’t let it paralyze you. Maybe you’ll write the next bestseller, or turn into an amazing chef, or simply become a better person. You can’t know until you try.
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Wow – I really need this right now – fear seems to be crippling me and I want to break out. I like the title of the book Feel the fear and do it anyway. Thanks – good post.
I needed this, too. I've been afraid to open my WIP today. Now, I'm diving in. Thanks. 🙂
Awesome!
I hate cold water because it literally freezes my muscles, making it very hard to move. >.< But I love the feeling of feeling that fear and doing it anyway!
Oh my gosh I feel so lucky to have found your blog and stopped by today, what a wonderful post you've written!
I too do not like cold water but there are times where you watch others having so much fun you've got to bite the bullet. I recently overcame a massive road block in writing. I've written two full novels and I'm very happy with them but when I get to revising I'm terrified, well I passed the road block got out of my head and just took post-its, red ink to my binder and I'm not on page 43 and still going strong!!!
Thanks for the motivational post and I look forward to future ones!
Sometimes the little fears are more resilient than the major ones. The book you refer to, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, is by Susan Jeffers, PhD. I'm pretty sure you can find it at most major bookstores, including amazon.com, etc. Thanks for the great post!