Give Fear the Finger, and Live the Life You Want

There’s one major hurdle that stops us from achieving our dreams. Fear. In particular, the fear of failure.

Life can get off track if you let fear make your decisions for you. At least, it did for me. When, at that crucial age during the final teenage years, I was asked to decide what job I’d like when the real business of life began, I told my parents I wanted to be a writer. This wasn’t a job the school career adviser picked for me, and it wasn’t generated by a careers computer program, it was just something I knew. I knew because when I was at primary school during art classes, I always asked if I could write a poem or song instead of drawing. I knew because in secondary school I loved writing weekly essays for my English class more than anything else. I just knew.

Trust Your Inner Voice

But unfortunately my parents did not know and, in their best efforts to cushion their little girl from disappointment, they put me off writing. They frowned and said that writing was a very hard field to get in to, an extremely competitive business. The sub-text was that I wasn’t good enough to succeed in it.

So I did other things. I was a student, a teacher, a magazine editor and an Internet developer, but in each of these jobs the thing I enjoyed most, the thing I was best at was reading, researching and writing. And I still wanted to be a writer. Although, I was already writing I dreamed of writing full time, I wanted to write more creatively and I wanted to write a novel.

Dare to Follow Your Dreams

But fear held me back for years. Maybe I wasn’t good enough? Maybe people would laugh at my work? Maybe my writing would be boring, trite, pathetic or just plain bad. Eventually I realised that there was only one way to find out and that’s to write, to let people read it and see what they think. So here I am. Now, more than 20 years after I was dissuaded from being a writer, I’m finally back on track.

As part of my self-prescribed aversion therapy I write a blog for all the world to read, and so far the feedback has been good. No one has complained about my writing, though a few people have disagreed with my ideas. (Unbelievable, I know!) I’m also well on my way to finishing my first novel. I’ve already written 60,000 words and I plan to finish it this month. Of course after that I still have a lot of work ahead of me: I’ll have to rewrite it, polish it, edit it, find an agent and, with luck, a publisher. Maybe it won’t ever get published but, if that’s the case, I’ll get over it. Because the thing is I feel truly happy with my life now. I’m doing what I always wanted to do: writing. I’m doing what I’m best at and what I love. Finally, I am a writer.

Overcome Your Fears Today

So the moral is, if you know what your dreams are then, follow through on them. We don’t live forever and time is of the essence. Don’t let fear hold you back from achieving what you want to in life!

Come on, let’s give fear the finger together.

Thanks for reading, feel free to tell me your dreams, fears and inspirations. I dare you to join me in the hot spot. Don’t forget to subscribe by email now or to the RSS Feed, if you haven’t already, so you don’t miss out.

Good luck with all your plans!

Don’t forget to subscribe by email now or to the RSS Feed, if you haven’t already, so you don’t miss out.