Fear Provides Us With the Opportunity to Slay Dragons
By Laurie Buchanan, PhD
Everyone has fears.
Fear of spiders. Fear of heights. Fear of confined spaces.
If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance that you’re a writer—a female writer. There’s an even higher chance that at some point, fear has kept you from writing. Here are a few common writing-related fears:
- Am I genuinely talented, or just a perpetual wannabe?
- If I call myself a writer, people will expect me to make good on it.
- What will people (readers) think? Will they laugh? Will they lie to spare my feelings?
- What if what I don’t have anything interesting to say?
- What if my academic background doesn’t have anything to do with writing?
- The publishing industry is hard to break into. There’s no way I’ll ever get published, so why bother trying?
- I have a family to take care of and a hectic job. What if I can’t keep up the pace? What if I can’t finish what I start?
- When I compare myself to my writing friends, I fall short.
Science tells us that when we experience sustained positive emotions like compassion, care, forgiveness, gratitude, and patience, our body produces dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which is secreted by the adrenal glands. DHEA is known as the vitality hormone; it accelerates renewal and improves our health.
When we experience sustained negative emotions such as anger, bitterness, worry, or fear, our bodies produce cortisol, which contributes to sub-optimal performance, accelerates aging, and is degenerative to health. But one of these emotions—fear—can be good for us.
Fear is in the heart of the beholder. One woman’s fear may be another woman’s strength. It’s been said that the best way to eliminate an enemy is to make him your friend. It’s the same with fear; we can cultivate fear as a friend.
There are many types of fear: social, emotional, and physical among them. Regardless of the type, fear is not only a great survival tool, but it also shows us what’s important and what matters to us.
Do you experience stage fright just before delivering a presentation or get tongue-tied and flustered when meeting new people? Do you become anxiety-ridden at the dentist’s office or feel panicky when stepping into a small space or onto an airplane?
Fear can be debilitating; it can cause us to freeze in our tracks (emotionally or otherwise), cutting us off at the knees.
Fear can be a leverage point (emotionally or otherwise), helping us get from Point A to Point B.
Fear is an excellent guide to opportunity. It dares us to rise to the challenge, to step into courage and confront that which makes us afraid. It can be the catalyst that motivates us to action: perhaps expressing our opinion in a group setting despite the fear of being ostracized or ending a relationship that’s bankrupting our heart.
The world without fear would be dangerous. Like any good friend, fear—and its cousin adrenaline—lets us know when to freeze, fight, or flee—run like the dickens! They call us to action. Fear provides the energy and motivation to do what needs to be done.
Each person’s situation is different. One person may need to practice their presentation so they know it inside out. Another may need to say “no”—and stick with it—regardless of the reception it receives. Others may need to take precautionary steps to avoid an unpleasant message from their physician.
One of my clients said, “Laurie, how can you possibly relate to what I’m going through? You have a perfect life—you don’t have anything to be afraid of.” Let me be the first to say that her perception of me isn’t accurate. But as I shared with her, I’ve made it a practice to set my fears down so I can stand on them like a footstool and step up into joy.
Some of the steps you can take toward addressing writing-related fears include:
- Decide which fears concern you the most.
- Prioritize them according to validity—and which are simply excuses to not write.
- Write down how you can address your fears in concrete ways. For example, instead of thinking, “I plan to tell myself it’s okay to be rejected,” shift your perspective and think, “I’ll research reasons why submissions get rejected and then revise my work accordingly.”
- Write a plan of action, then keep it where you can refer to it if you begin to feel discouraged.
Fear lets us know we’re alive. Without fear, life would be flat; there’d be no effervescence. Fear provides us with the opportunity to slay dragons. Once defeated, we get the thrill of fist-punching the air and shouting Woohoo! as we sashay on to the next conquest.
—
Board-Certified holistic health practitioner, life coach, and award-winning author, Laurie Buchanan, PhD, helps you turn intention into action. A cross between Dr. Dolittle, Nanny McPhee, and a type-A Buddhist, Laurie is a voracious reader, award-winning author, kindness enthusiast, and an unabashed optimist. Her first book, Note to Self: A Seven-Step Path to Gratitude and Growth, closes the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Her second book, The Business of Being: Soul Purpose in and Out of the Workplace, shows you how to create personal transformation at the intersection of business and spirituality. Learn more at TuesdaysWithLaurie.com
This book isn’t just about being in business; it’s about the business of being. But when you stop to think about it, each of us is like a small business. Successful business owners implement strategies that improve their prospects for success. Similarly, as human beings, it serves us well to implement guiding principles that inspire us to live our purpose and reach our goals.
The rich ganache filling that flows through the center of this book is the story of La Mandarine Bleue, a delicious depiction of how nine individuals used twelve steps of a business plan to find their vocation and undergo a transformation (with some French recipes thrown in for good measure).
From a business plan and metrics to mission and goals with everything between―investors, clients and customers, marketing strategies, and goodwill development―this book clearly maps how to create personal transformation at the intersection of business and spirituality. Merging the language of business and self-help, The Business of Being will teach you how to enhance “profitability”―body, mind, and spirit.
Category: On Writing
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
