Fear and writing

As a writer, fear is something that’s been with me since I started my writing. It can be overbearing, overwhelming, and downright debilitating. But I refuse to let it win.

I’ve written a lot about fear and how to overcome it, but I think it’s important to say that fear is good. Fear is your friend, not an enemy. Fear keeps you on your toes and helps you be aware of potential dangers. When you feel fear, treat it as an opportunity to learn something new or reach beyond what you thought possible. And once you finish overcoming that fear, or just disagreeing with its message (for example: finishing a marathon), you will meet all your goals!

Who hasn’t heard the old saying–fear is an excellent motivator? While many can admit to being fearful of something, it’s rare to find those who harness their fears into motivation.

We all fear something. The fear of failure. Not being good enough. Being inadequate. No matter what your fear is, it’s normal to have the pain within it that comes with those fears. I learned a long time ago that no matter how bad my fears were, I could overcome them if I just kept going forward and didn’t give in to that fear. Today, when I’m confronted with my fears about my weight loss, or whether this blog post that I’m typing on is good enough for submission to a search engine programmer; instead of fighting them, which seems like the only rational thing to do… I don’t!

Fear is like the feeling you get when you think something bad will happen. It’s a warning to let us know that something bad is coming and it only lasts for a brief second, just long enough to think twice about what we are doing. That’s why fear is called the “fear of fear”.

The fear of pain and death is a minor hurdle we must overcome in order to grow. It can just keep us from reaching our potential, or worse, deter us from doing something that could mean the world to us. Fear can paralyze–while it can make sense to be cautious around certain things, there are times you’ll get too scared to do something and cut your chances of making a difference right in half!