Welcome to the Fear Blog. I think we can all agree that the last several years have been full of fear for all of us in different ways. COVID opened our eyes to the understanding that we could lose our lives, our loved ones, our jobs, and our sanity all at once. It took our sanity, our safety, and our peace of mind and left us in the depths of despair.
Even before COVID decimated the world, fear has run rampant, especially in the creative communities. I’ve watched fear break people that I hold dear. I’ve seen it cause authors to stop writing and pull all their books. Artists have stopped creating and friends have stopped leaving their homes. Fear holds so many of us back from reaching our true potential.
And now, in light of the recent elections, new fears are gripping us. Not just as people or as creatives, but as women, mothers, daughters. There is uncertainty and confusion, disgust and disbelief. The world we live in has changed. Our comfort zones have been stripped away, and we are going to have to step out in faith if we want to see change.
Welcome to the fear blog…
Fear is the enemy
The more we fear something, the more it becomes ingrained in us until it becomes a part of us, a part of our personality. It becomes a part of who we are. We define ourselves by fear until we become the sum of our fears. The more I fear spiders, the more dramatic I become when there is a spider close by. (I’m not exaggerating.) When I’m alone, as long as the spider isn’t too big, I can kill it myself. But have you ever seen a spider jump? Let that tiny little spider jump and I am out. Call the fire department because we’re going to burn this place down and start over.
Fear is the enemy of productivity. Fear binds us and keeps up from accomplishing the things that we were meant to. It keeps us from trying new things and from reaching our full potential. It is the thief of joy and peace. Worry, anxiety, and fear will rob you of your potential and leave you empty and unable to move.
How many opportunities have you missed out on because you were too afraid to make a move?
For the first time in over fifteen years, I am single. I was in a relationship my entire adult life (one relationship, not many), and now I find myself slowly realizing I don’t know how to date. I never had to. We were together for 15 years. I have to start dating again. I have to actually find strangers that I find attractive, hope that they find me attractive, ask for their numbers, and go on dates with them.
My first real opportunity presented itself at a wedding a little over a year ago. The MC was cute and great at his job. In hindsight, based on a very brief interaction, I’m pretty sure he thought I was cute too. But I actively avoided eye contact with him the whole night until I decided to request a song. It’s a habit that I cultivated through years of being in a long-term relationship. As a result, I didn’t get the man’s name or number. I was too scared to bother having a conversation to get his information. I never even got his name.
I missed a chance because I was too afraid to even make eye contact.
We like being afraid…
I have struggled with fear my whole life, but it hasn’t been until the last few years that I realized what a problem it was and the peace and purpose that it was keeping me from.
I have an unpopular opinion: We like being afraid.
Fear gives us something to talk about. It gives us something to find in common with others, and at the same time, it makes us stand apart and makes us special. It’s easier to be afraid than it is to fight fear and stand up for ourselves, our beliefs, and our creativity.
Fear gives us something to define ourselves by. It makes us interesting and quirky. I’m afraid of spiders so when I see the smallest hint of a spider I freak out (I actually had to kill one on my computer this morning, little jerk).
Why do we love being afraid? We do it to ourselves, sometimes. We watch scary movies and read scary books and put ourselves into situations where we will be scared the most. I personally love consuming anything True Crime. But why? Why do we want to be afraid? Why do we put things into our minds that make fear sink deeper and deeper into our lives?
You can’t scare fear away with more fear. It just doesn’t work that way. Fear only begats more fear, the cycle repeating over and over until we are completely overrun.
What if…
What if I told you that you don’t have to be afraid? We don’t have to define ourselves by our fears. What if there were better ways to define ourselves and to show our worth than by comparing our fears?
If I told you that, even though fear has become a part of your personality, you can change that and become truly fearless, what would you think? Fear is nothing but a lie that you’ve allowed yourself to believe. You don’t have to be afraid of what other people think of you, or how your art will do, or if your business will succeed. You don’t have to be afraid of the state of the world or what’s going to happen if so and so ends up in office. Fear can be conquered.
Welcome to the Fear Blog
Through this blog, we will work through fear, fearlessness, and how to become a fearless creator. We will learn to create our art and our businesses without fear and how to tap into our full potential and find our purpose in this life. We’ll learn how to live the lives we always dreamed of and how to live the lives that we were meant to live.
We will move through these things together because there are still so many things that I am still learning about being fearless and moving in my purpose. But I want you, the reader, to know that you’re not alone. We are in this together and it is possible to become fearless.
So, let’s conquer this together. I look forward to growing and conquering with you, but to do that, I will need you readers to leave me feedback about what resonates with you, what doesn’t, and what you would like to hear more about. What are you struggling with?
If this sounds like something you’re interested in learning to do, please follow this blog and sign up for updates on new posts and becoming fearless.
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