We hold back from living our life because of the
stranglehold of fear. I’m a firm
believer that fear is for a lot of us our greatest enemy. It’s the demon that tells us that our ideas
won’t work, it’s the nagging voice in our head that asks why take the risk. Fear for some of us is crippling and leads to
a life of mediocrity. I had a boss years
ago that would always pose every indecision or problem with a question, “What
are you afraid of?” It was very
Oprahesque and yet honestly it was a great learning time in my life. Despite fighting the fear question, I learned
to honestly ask it and low and behold I always came up with an answer.
Today I ask myself what am I afraid of on a regular
basis. When I’m stuck in a rut or just
mulling over a problem and I ask what role fear is playing in my decision or
indecision. I have found the next
question is crucial and that is, ‘Is this a valid fear?’ It is funny how often the answer is no, that
isn’t rational or even a real probability.
I believe that there is a reason that the Bible addresses fear so
often. I believe that is a subtle yet
effective way that the Devil uses to get in our heads and eventually affect our
thinking and hearts.
I have readily admitted that I hate change. Change tends to feel scary, because the
outcome is so often unknown. At the
heart of hating change is fear. The fear
of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of ______. This year I am trying to embrace change and
adopt a more flexible mindset. A friend
of mine calls it going with the flow, but for me it is a whole lot more
complicated that adopting a Zen like attitude.
It’s accepting and appreciating change.
It’s acknowledging the fear that lives behind the sign of every fork in
the road.
Mediocrity chokes a marriage to death because fear stops
couples from saying how they feel and what they need. Fear manifests into life mediocrity when a
business idea goes untested because of fear of failure. Fear stops us from living and forces us into plain
existence. My grandmother told me the
best part of growing old is, “You don’t care what anyone thinks or says about
you.” My goal this year is to start
living life now with that mindset and start kicking fear to the curb. xo Melissa
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