Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
Susan Jeffers Ph.D
Random House, 2006, 240pp
$13.95

When I graduated from high school the supervisor of my internship with Time Warner gave me a tote bag full of graduation gifts. One of those gifts was the book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.

In the book Susan writes: Any time you attempt to do something new, fear will show up to try and deter you from taking that next step. She goes on to say the only way to get rid of fear is to do the very thing you are afraid of.

Since graduating high school, I have had more times when I was afraid to do something than I can count. I have let fear stop me from pursuing many things. Then there were those things that I wanted so badly that I could no longer allow fear to hold me back, like relocating, completing my degrees, and starting my writing career.  I have found that what Dr. Jeffers says in her book is absolutely true.
I used to be deathly afraid of submitting my writing to magazines, and being rejected...until I started to submit my work to magazines and got rejected. Suddenly the fear was gone. I received a rejection letter and I was still okay. Not only that, I looked around and saw that all writers receive rejection letters, it just comes with the territory. Now I see a rejection letter as proof that I am doing something, reaching for something, and conquering my fears. I'm no longer cowering in a corner with my writing hidden in a notebook.

What have you allowed fear to stop you from doing? Do you dream of moving to a new city, traveling the world, teaching, going back to school, changing careers, or starting your own business? Whatever it may be, do like Dr. Jeffers says, "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway." KP.