If You’re Afraid Of It, Then You Should Probably Do It

07 Aug If You’re Afraid Of It, Then You Should Probably Do It

When it comes to pursuing a new venture in life, there tends to be two types of people: those who toe-dip and test the waters, and those leap right in. I’m the latter. If there’s something I want to do, I have to give it 100% of my time, effort and energy—or nothing at all. I admire those who can gradually immerse themselves into things, ensuring there’s a degree of safety and that they aren’t taking reckless risks. But I’m not that kind of person.

There is one thing, though, that will keep me from making the leap: fear. I always saw fear as a sort of emotional red flag. A method of self-preservation that my body would deploy if I started veering toward a danger zone. I saw fear as something that protected me from whatever failure or hurt that would have befell me if I went through with it.

But over the past few years, I’ve come to see fear in a different light. After reading Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art, I began to understand it more as a barrier our minds create because of the risk involved in catapulting into the great unknown.

My view of fear changed even more upon listening to the podcast Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert, where Gilbert talks about how fear is actually an indicator of something you should be pursuing. Why? Because we fear things that are important to us. If what we fear didn’t mean anything to us, then we wouldn’t fear it.

So whatever it is that you’re afraid of right now, whatever dream you’re postponing until this feeling somehow subsides (because if it really matters to you, it won’t just disappear), I’m challenging you to embrace it; walk toward it instead of in the opposite direction. Envision your fear as the charge of a magnet: the stronger it is, the closer you are to what it is you’re meant to do.