Give Fear the Finger and Feel Fine
Inspiration for Overcoming Fear
OK, I confess, when it comes to giving fear the finger it’s not all plain sailing. When people ask me what I do, I want to tell them I’m a writer, but often I chicken out.
“I’m doing some writing at the moment.” I’ll say, looking shifty. So I’m definitely still battling that fear of failure, the fear of ridicule.
Celebrate Your Successes
In other aspects of my life fear has been easier to overcome:
> I moved to Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Laos and Panama when I’d never even visited those countries before.
> I studied interactive media when I hardly knew how to use a computer.
> I insisted on a home birth with my second child even though the first one was born by emergency caesarian and weighed in at 10lb 12oz (Ouch).
> Then I had a home birth with my third child even though my second baby weighed 11lb 1oz (Not sure if that’s brave or just plain mad).
> More recently, I learned to surf at 40 (I may be the world’s worst surfer, still, I have fun.)
But being and saying I’m a writer is much scarier than all of those. Maybe the fear is strongest for the things you want most. But my greatest fear of all though is of regrets, of dying without having achieved my dreams or even trying to tackle them.
I’m glad I gave fear the finger – I’ve so much happier now.
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!
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When you say that you’re a writer, people will probably expect that you’re the next Dan Brown or John Grisham, and when they ask what you’ve written and they haven’t heard of it, they might think that your writing is probably crap but that you just see yourself as a big writer. Isn’t it like that?
Also, lots of people don’t see blogging as real writing…
Thanks Nicolas, that’s definitely a problem. I’m not claiming to be an author (a published writer) just yet but you have to get started somewhere. I suppose it’s like all those actors who are currently waiting tables. Do they stay true to their dream and say they’re an actor or compromise for the sake of honesty and say they’re just a waiter?
What I personally am trying to do here is be brave and say I’m a writer even though I haven’t had anything published yet, mainly because I haven’t sent any of my writing to publishers or agents. However, I do have 12 years experience of web copy writing, and writing proposals and dissertations so hopefully that counts for something!
There is definitely a very uncomfortable feeling of being an impostor though and hopefully I can ride that out and eventually receive the validation that we need to prove that we’re doing a good job: a pay check:)
As for blog writing not being real writing, I suppose you’re right that many people view it this way but there’s no doubt that the future of publishing is online, and since more and more people are reading stuff on the Internet, more and more good writers are needed to feed their need to read.
Definitely some interesting points raised here so many thanks for your comments and for reading my articles.