Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
In her book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers shares two fundamental truths about fear. First, “the fear will never go away as long as you continue to grow.” Every step in the sanctification process will be met with new challenges and obstacles to overcome. You can’t wait until the fear goes away because it never will, which leads to the second truth. “The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it.” Susan was raised to believe that she couldn’t. Then one day this timid soul decided she wouldn’t, no, she couldn’t live that way any longer. She writes:
Part of my problem was the non-stop little voices inside my head that kept telling me, “You’d better not change your situation. There’s nothing else out there for you. You’ll never make it on your own.” You know the one I’m talking about – the one that keeps reminding you, “Don’t take a chance. You might make a mistake. Boy will you be sorry!”
My fear never seemed to abate, and I didn’t have a moment’s peace. Even my doctorate in psychology didn’t seem to do me any good. Then one day, as I was dressing for work, I reached a turning point. I happened to glance in the mirror, and I saw an all-to-familiar sight – eyes red and puffy from tears of self-pity. Suddenly rage welled up inside of me, and I began shouting at my reflection, “Enough . . . Enough . . . Enough!” I shouted until I had no more energy (or voice) left.
When I stopped, I felt a strange and wonderful sense of relief and calm I had never felt before. Without realizing it at the time, I had gotten in touch with a very powerful part of myself that before that moment I hadn’t even known existed. I took another look in the mirror and smiled as I nodded my head yes. The old familiar voice of doom and gloom was drowned out, at least temporarily, and a new voice had come to the fore – one that spoke of strength and love and joy and all good things. At that moment I knew I was not going to let fear get the best of me. I would find a way to rid myself of the negativism that prevailed in my life. Thus my odyssey began.
Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain.
Dr. Neil
For Spanish, see http://www.ficmm.org/blog
