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Feel the Fear and do it Anyway

Do you feel like a failure, a coward, a useless worm? Do you put off doing those things your heart and conscience are begging you to do, right now?

If you do, it is fear that is ruining your life. It could be fear of making mistakes, fear of not being able to cope, or even fear of dying.

There are no mistakes, merely opportunities for learning. Think of something you wish you had the courage to do. Imagine doing it. Write down all the mistakes you could make. Now see what you would learn from each one. As babies, we make thousands of mistakes, quite happily – that is how we learned to walk and talk. Why stop now? Welcome mistakes. Grow wiser every day.

Fear of not coping disappears if we keep our mind totally on what we are doing now. Say to yourself, "Now I am doing the washing up". "Now I am driving the car." Don’t think of what has yet to be done. We don’t climb a mountain by trying to leap to the top. We take one step at a time and see how far we get every day.


If you like talking to God it is even easier. Try praying, "You are the creator, the doer of all things. I am but the flute. Play me Lord as you will." There is nothing to cope with. God is doing all that needs to be done, through you.

If we don’t mind mistakes and can always cope, why do we still procrastinate, hold back? We pretend that we’ll live in the body forever. Face the fact that your body will die. We have no way of knowing when our time will be up. Do this simple exercise and you’ll see things start to happen. Take a large sheet of white paper and draw 3 circles on it, one inside the other, like this:

In the outer ring, write down everything you would like to do if you were told you had only 5 years to live. In the next smaller ring, reduce your list and write down all you’d do if you only had 6 months. In the inside circle write down what you’d do if you only had two weeks left. Now stick the paper on your fridge or on a wall and look at it every morning. This one small activity will change your life.

Of course, there could be deeper reasons underlying your timidity or inactivity. These need to be explored and shared. Your own secret fears could be destroying your life. Panic attacks, fear of losing control, night terrors, crippling shyness, multiple phobias – these can all be resolved. Don’t let fear make you hide anymore

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