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Category: Public Speaking

Feel the Fear… Write the Book Anyway

Feel the fear do the ________ anyway!

As many of you know, in my world the fill-in-the-blank would be Feel the fear write the book anyway,  but really this is a metaphor for anything in life.

Whether books are on your short list, yours is in works or way out in the distant future or not at all,  there’s a lesson in this for everyone.

We all have things that we fear doing. Some of you may not want to fess up publicly. Your choice.

I know I always fear public speaking until I get going on stage and then I usually start enjoying it. I’m actively seeking to do more public speaking. You may think, why the heck would she do that?

There are two reasons:

  1. You may have heard me say that my favorite quote is “life begins at the edge of your comfort zone” so I’m trying to push myself to do things that are uncomfortable but that I know are going to help me grow as a person and a professional.
  2. I know that doing public speaking will help me get in front of more people who I can help by providing some of my knowledge and expertise and hopefully inspiring them to take action.

I was at a literary conference recently that my city hosted for the first time. I sat in on a panel of successful fiction writers, most of whom I’d never heard of. I was really struck by what Garth Risk Hallberg, one of the panelists told us, when he said that he worked on his book for six years. During the first four, he didn’t even let anyone know he was working on it – not even his closest friends.

Why? Because he was afraid. Afraid that it would just end up in his top-drawer, unread. Afraid no publishing house would pick him up. Afraid no one would read it. Afraid if they read it, that they wouldn’t like it.

Sound familiar? It did to me- like he was broadcasting the little gremlin voice in my head, as well as a thoughts /fears many of my clients expressed to me at one point in their journey to becoming published authors.
[clickToTweet tweet=”“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain” quote=”“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain “]

So in this case author Hallberg’s fears were unfounded. His book was a big success and each and every one of his fears didn’t come to pass.

Feel the fear - write the book

Now your outcomes and my outcomes may not be as spectacular, but you won’t have any wins if you don’t take any chances. If you don’t allow yourself to either ignore those fears, or set them aside to do that thing that you’ve been fearing, nothing great can happen. Period.

Sometimes removing fear can be done by improving your skills in the area where you have fears, practicing to build your confidence, hiring a mentor or sometimes moving past the fear means starting by taking tiny baby steps.

How can I support you in moving past a fear to achieve a dream? Please let me know. You can do so by commenting below or by submitting a request on Facebook

Here’s another fear- doing live video. I publicly committed to doing a FB Live every day in May to help me push past that fear!! I’d love your support on it, so stop by and join me, please!

To your success!