What are you afraid of?
Failure?
Success and it's responsibilities?
Commitment?
Rejection?
Not living up to your potential?
Loneliness?
Dying?
Living?
Losing a loved one?
Starting over?
Starting over?
and then there's the little fears....
Spiders?
Heights?
Falling?
Hurting yourself?
Hurting someone else?
Going too fast?
We're all afraid of something and most of us experience the first list of fears to some extent or another. I've started reading a book called 'Feel the Fear and do it anyway' by Susan Jeffers (side note: my good friend wrote her thesis on this subject as well!). I've been blown away by the simplicity of it all! She doesn't make any life changing, revolutionary statements, but by extracting what we all know to be true and putting it into bold face font, she reminds us that all those successful people out there? Yea, they're scared too! They just don't let their fear stop them from doing anything! They are mentally strong. We spend so much time trying to become physically strong, we often forget to invest time in developing our mental and emotional strength! This doesn't mean becoming an ice-y, unfeeling, calculating person; it's about becoming someone who can 'handle it!' Whatever life throws at you.
After 10 months and 3 weeks, I can honestly say I am revelling in my new ability to 'handle it'. Sure, there are times when I slip up, when I crumble at the thought that he's not here to help me solve a problem, when I'm lying in pain, desperately wishing he was there to hold my hand. BUT I have become an adventurous person. I was never that girl. I was afraid of hurting myself, of failing, of making a fool of myself. I worried about what others thought of me, what P thought of me, what I thought of me. But now? I want to do it all! Jump out of a plane? Yes please! Learn to scuba dive? Name the time and day! Learn to snowboard? Happening. Hike up a mountain? Thrilling. I have a new take on life and I am grateful for that. P gave me this parting gift: the realisation that life is short, so LIVE IT! Screw fear! LIFE is scary. And the scariest thing of all is NOT living! P was always saying 'I wanna, I'm gonna, I'd like to, I wish...I could do this or that' Well, gonna, wanna, like to never happened. He was the master at 'thinking about it'. People have held him up as an adventurer and he was, in spirit, but he didn't get the chance to do half the things he wanted to. I've been left with a very long bucket list, and I LOVE it, because taking on all these new adventures, learning all these new skills, losing P and surviving has made me realise that whatever life throws at me, I can handle it. Facing those fears makes us stronger. The fear will never go away, as long as we continue to learn and grow, so really, Fear is a pretty great thing. So embrace it. And stop letting fear stand in your way.
After 10 months and 3 weeks, I can honestly say I am revelling in my new ability to 'handle it'. Sure, there are times when I slip up, when I crumble at the thought that he's not here to help me solve a problem, when I'm lying in pain, desperately wishing he was there to hold my hand. BUT I have become an adventurous person. I was never that girl. I was afraid of hurting myself, of failing, of making a fool of myself. I worried about what others thought of me, what P thought of me, what I thought of me. But now? I want to do it all! Jump out of a plane? Yes please! Learn to scuba dive? Name the time and day! Learn to snowboard? Happening. Hike up a mountain? Thrilling. I have a new take on life and I am grateful for that. P gave me this parting gift: the realisation that life is short, so LIVE IT! Screw fear! LIFE is scary. And the scariest thing of all is NOT living! P was always saying 'I wanna, I'm gonna, I'd like to, I wish...I could do this or that' Well, gonna, wanna, like to never happened. He was the master at 'thinking about it'. People have held him up as an adventurer and he was, in spirit, but he didn't get the chance to do half the things he wanted to. I've been left with a very long bucket list, and I LOVE it, because taking on all these new adventures, learning all these new skills, losing P and surviving has made me realise that whatever life throws at me, I can handle it. Facing those fears makes us stronger. The fear will never go away, as long as we continue to learn and grow, so really, Fear is a pretty great thing. So embrace it. And stop letting fear stand in your way.
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