This week’s writing prompt will have you take a little time to examine what you’re afraid of. Take a few moments and write down a few things that you’re afraid of. What are some things that you’re not taking action on because of fear? What decisions are you making out of fear?

Identifying Fears

It’s important to identify your fears. Fear can cloud your vision, and make it difficult to make good decisions. Fear can make it difficult to see all of your available options. When you’re afraid, you don’t typically think well. When you make decisions based on fear, you often miss or skip over viable options.

Your Comfort Zone

Where is the end of your comfort zone? Are you choosing goals that fall outside of it? When you choose to set goals that are within your comfort zone, you’re just maintaining, you’re not growing. In order to grow, you need to reach outside of your comfort zone and take action there – we all do. If you’re not actively reaching outside of your comfort zone, why not? How can you start?

When you choose not to set goals because of your fears, you miss out on potential growth. It’s when we try and fail, that we learn and grow. You may fail if you set goals that are difficult, but you’ll learn and grow as a result. You’ll also find that those things you were so afraid of weren’t so bad. You may also find that facing those things that you’re afraid of actually give you the strength to face other things that you need to face.

What are you putting off because you’re afraid of something, and how long do you intend to put that thing off? When you actually take action on that thing, you may find that you have the capacity within you to do that thing that you’ve been putting off. We often don’t understand the capacity that’s within us until we take action on something that we thought we couldn’t do.

You Don’t Have to Climb the Entire Mountain Right Now

You also don’t have to take on the entire thing, you just have to take action. Often times when you think of taking on something large, it feels overwhelming. You will often find that just taking action will start you down a path that will allow you to better understand and find success. You don’t have to be afraid of the entire thing, you just have to know how to do what’s next.

Fear and Caution

A note on fear and caution. Earlier, it was mentioned that fear can cloud our judgement. It’s not just blind valor that gets us through fear though. We can certainly move forward with caution as well. In fact, caution is often what allows us to move forward safely. When we identify and can be vulnerable about our fears, we can move forward in a way that allows us to feel and be safe. Identifying fears is not a weakness. Vulnerability is not a weakness. Identifying fears and vulnerabilities is also a way to design a way forward.

Identifying Fears as a Way Forward

At some point in the future, you will look back and be thankful that you were vulnerable enough to identify your fears. You will certainly find that some fears were unfounded. You will also find that some fears were legitimate and required caution, which also allowed you to move forward. Either way, you will have moved forward with courage and intent.