Quote of The Week

"Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway." Susan Jeffers

Not only is this a fabulous quote, but a fabulous book as well. Susan Jeffers gives some lovely insight as well as valuable methods on how to acknowledge the fears we have within our lives, but learn to face them and move past them in order to experience and enjoy the things that we desire. However, since I this is not a book review site, if anyone is interested in reading this book I have provided the link to her website to learn more about the author.

What I do like about this quote is how it acknowledges one of the main things that holds most of us back from doing the things we want most. So many of us hold fear next to us like a second skin. We are afraid that we are going to “fail,” never mind that there is no such thing as failure only growth. We are afraid that we may get hurt, physically or emotionally depending on the situation. We are afraid to look stupid in front of our peers, and I could really go on, and on, and on, and on, but I’ll stop there for now.

For some reason we often refuse to acknowledge these fears. If we admit fear than we look weak, or like we are giving up. On the other hand some of us will admit we have them and then use them for an excuse to not do what we want and hide it under the guise of realism. “I can’t do this because it’s not realistic.” When we say this what we really mean is, “I can’t do this because I am afraid I won’t be able to handle the outcome.” Sometimes we feel this way even if the outcome, will most likely good. Some of us fear our own greatness, because what if we learn to become great only to have it blowup in our faces?

Well the idea of feeling the fear and doing it anyway is truly empowering. To me it means that yes I acknowledge that I am concerned or unsure (or whatever) about a certain subject, but I’m going to take a deep breath, gather my wits about me and push through it anyway. We as human beings have pushed past much more than fear. We have moved past pains of all types, deaths, struggles, perceived failures and more. So why should we let the potential of something going bad deter us from our goals?

If you ask me, fear consists of the “what if” something goes bad more so than the actuality of the bad things happening. “It is reported that more than 90% of what we worry about never happens.” – Jeffers, Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway. What does that say about our fears and our worries? We imagine the worst and the overwhelming majority of the time we never experience these horrible things we fantasize about or invasion, and so what if we do experience that small less than 10%? We can deal with whatever we set our minds upon! Yes we can! Even when we resist bad things and they end up happening anyway don’t we move on? Don’t we continue to live and make it through, day to day? Yes, we, do! No matter the situation we have the ability to make it through. Let’s not allow the potential of bad things happening keep us from all of the good things!