Fear is fascinating to me because everyone has a different scale of fear.  Extreme fear to ‘I can handle that’.  When I was a kid, fear was talking to a group of kids, talking to adults, asking a kid to play with me, going to ask for a straw or a spoon from a waitress, putting my hand up in class.  Pretty much anything that had people looking at me.  I tried to avoid any of these things as much as possible.

I have learned, though, that fear is a barrier that I put there myself.  It’s completely self made. With my law of attraction learning and positive quote seeking, I came across these gems:

• ‘Miracles start to happen when you give as much energy to your dreams as you do to your fears.’
• ‘I realized that to be more alive I had to be less afraid.  So I did it.  I lost my fear and gained my whole life.’
• ‘Dare to live the life you dreamed of.  Don’t let fear decide your destiny.’
• ‘If it is both terrifying and amazing then you should definitely pursue it.’

It’s taken a long time to get here, and has been very gradual.  As shy as I was I have overcome fear many times, in big ways, that I am proud of:

-taking part in a Rotary exchange and moving to the Netherlands for a year

-giving a 30 minute slide show presentation in Dutch to the Rotary club there about where I am from (in front of about 80 people)

-in art school we had to do a 5 minute monologue in front of our peers. I did mine in Dutch. I struggled with what topic to talk about, and speaking in Dutch completely eliminated the self consciousness about which topic to pick, as no one understood what I was saying, but it did bring a different self consciousness about surprising those who didn’t know I spoke Dutch and the sound of the language (if you’ve heard Dutch spoken, you know what I am talking about)

-cold calling different drafting/architectural businesses to ask if I could get some work experience (I did get a yes)

-and the most recent that had me break out in a cold sweat was sharing my art Instagram page with my ‘normal’ Instagram group of friends and co-workers.  Hitting the ‘share’ button filled me with a bit of dread.

It is good to have some fear, it is a yardstick for how much you want something.  Willing to do it even though is scares you? Then it’s important to you.  That’s how you know your passion.  And as I overcome my fear, I fear a little bit less and can enjoy more!

Till next time,

– Devon