follow your fear - part 2

Read first: follow your fear – part 1

I experienced this personally back in my late teenage years when I decided to go to college in a completely different city that I had never been to, and staying away from my family for the first time in my life. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew I had to do it. Deep down, I knew I wanted to explore this world, gain more independence, and get some adventures under my belt. To grow as a human and to figure out my own way. And I came across both good and bad moments, peaks and valleys, times where I cried a lot and occasions where I laughed uncontrollably and created some amazing memories. I can definitely say that it was a crucial stage for my development and expansion. And the same applies to the time when I decided to attend grad school in a country I had never been to.

Fast forward to the time when I decided to pursue writing, and then later letting go of my previous career and embarking on the journey of becoming a full-time author and creative, which I am now, yeah, at every step of the way, I came across fear and I decided to follow it. Following my fear the first time when I stepped outside the confines of my home in a way trained me to be bolder and braver and to follow my fear again and again as I went ahead in my life, which is something that I still do regularly. I have simply conditioned myself to refrain from settling and becoming too comfortable.

I still experience fear from time to time when I sit down to write, when the blank white page stares at me and I struggle to come up with something new. When I record a podcast, or when I get ready to film a video.

The “impostor syndrome” gets to me sometimes. There are times when fear creeps in and I wonder about things like, “Are people liking my essays and my writing?”, “Am I running out of good ideas?”, “Is this podcast or video going to do well?”, “Am I getting enough subscribers and traffic to my blogs and YouTube channel?”, “Will I be able to survive and thrive in the long run as a creative entrepreneur?”, etc.  

I still experience fear when I try to do something totally new in the creative spectrum and don’t know how things will turn out. But I know that all these thoughts are signs of “good fears” that are essential for my expansion, for the nourishment of my mind, heart and soul, and for accomplishing greater successes. As Marie Forleo puts it, “Follow your fear. It’s a GPS for where your soul wants you to go.”

The bottom line is that following our passion and following our bliss is just one half of the equation. We must be willing to follow our fear too. We must be okay with stepping outside our comfort zone and making our way into uncharted territories. We must empower ourselves to follow something out of the ordinary,  something completely different that we know nothing about, something that involves uncertainty. We must condition ourselves to expect the unexpected.

We must equip ourselves with the courage to do things that go against the conventional wisdom and the ways of the society that we’re all used to. To choose the paths less traveled and use them as avenues to attract extraordinary success.