What are you afraid of?
What are you afraid of?
Someone else’s opinion of you?
Not measuring up?
Making a mistake?
Crashing and burning in your business?
Helen Keller certainly had all of those feelings and more. Imagine what it must have been like not to see or hear. There must have been many times when she was afraid. Yet, she accomplished a lot:
She published 12 books and numerous articles.
She traveled the world and visited 35 countries giving speeches to help others who also had disabilities.
She met every president from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson.
Feel the Fear. Do It Anyway.
Notice she doesn’t say, Be Brave and Do It Anyway. Or Fake It Until You Make It and Do It Anyway. Instead she recognizes the benefit of naming our feelings, embracing them rather than avoiding them and then doing the thing that scares us the most.
Fear can paralyze us. It can make us rationalize staying the in the same place. Or we can make progress but move so cautiously and slowly that it is hard to tell if we are really moving at all.
If we take this advice to heart, we recognize the risk but decide that it is worth it and do it anyway.
Certainly Helen Keller knew what she was talking about.
I have to ask myself: What am I afraid of?
What would happen if I did it anyway?
Feel the Fear. Do It Anyway. ~Helen Keller
