Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile… initially scared me to death. –Betty Bender
I don’t know about “scared to death” but the truth for me is… that I was scared before my first real ‘industry related speech’ and I was scared about leaving the security of a corporate entity and trying to provide for my then young family on my own. I was scared about everything I didn’t know about publishing a book …and I was scared about the cost of putting together my first book just to get it ready for the printer. Then… the printing costs were scary . I mean what if no one really wanted to buy a book about Poop and Initiative?
I can make a list of the most worthwhile things in my life… and trace almost all of them back to a moment of uncertainty or fear. While, ’scared to death’ sounds a bit dramatic…. it is reflective of a reality. Fear of the new and unknown is natural… overcoming it is needful. I’ve been taught that “faith is the moving cause of all action” and that “fear robs faith”. So if we let fear paralyze us, and stop us from going it will also stop us from growing. We’ll just stay stuck in the muck scared to make a move and take a risk.
But if we will face our fears… with faith, courage, determination and some degree of preparation and planning… AND THEN we act… we move, we begin to work towards our goal…we grow more and become more…and are scared less and less. As our faith, confidence and courage grow, there is less and less room for our fears and doubts.
Soon, almost before we know it …our fears have fled and we’ve done that scary thing. We got married, quit the job or applied for a new one, write the book, called someone to apologize and begin again… we’ve chosen to Act Courageously and so we’ve become more courageous. Or as my Rebecca says to our kids…..
Act the way you want to be and soon you’ll become the way you act. ~ Rebecca Weisler
Reminds me of that line from the movie “WE Bought a Zoo” – “Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage”
Mzsunflower's Say What? 