What would you do if you were not afraid?
Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of pain, fear of loss. I’ve been sitting with this question the last week. Fear holds us back far too often. I don’t think we even realise it half the time; we often phrase it being practical or realistic. We hide it behind cynicism, and demands of “if only other people/my family/the government would…”. We limit our imaginations, our ideas becoming stunted, by making choices based only what can see, not what we dream.
What would you do if you were not afraid?
I mean really do – that thing that’s been clawing at your belly and living in the back of your mind for all this time. I believe that we have gifts to offer the world, gifts as unique as the patterns on our skin, our strands of DNA, the snowflakes that cover the ground each winter. When we think that we have nothing to give, we forget we live in a world made of diversity, that there is nothing else out there exactly as we are. Every one of us is making the world through our actions, how can we plant the seeds of beauty?
What would you do if you could not fail? What would you do if you were not afraid?
I believe our lives are supposed to be bold, daring, audacious adventures*. They don’t always feel like this though. And even though a bold, daring, audacious adventure sounds great – it’s also terrifying af, none of those words are synonymous with safety. Too often though, we become mentally trapped by systems we never chose to be a part of, rather than find and craft a different way. We allow jobs that we don’t enjoy to dictate how we spend our lives, to determine our mood and attitude on certain days (Monday blues, Happy Fridays, Humpday Wednesdays). We tell ourselves we’re too small to make a difference – but what if you could?
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
Would you go to therapy? Heal the traumas that keep running your life? Would you do the inner work? Or what if you stopped doing all the things and just breathed for a while? Allowing what is within you to arise, even if it scares the hell out of you?
Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash
For a culture that loves the shallows, exploring our own depths is a rebellious act.
What else would you do if you were not afraid and you could not fail?
Would you work to wage peace? End poverty? Regenerate the earth? Heal relationships? Make art? Travel the world? Start a movement? Change politics? Change the world?
Why not?
Our lives are short, and I believe that life is asking more of us. Life is asking us to live it, to trust it, to embrace it. To take everything we love and everything we feel called to do and take that first step.
Our job is not to fix the world, it is to love it.
And yes, fear is normal, caution wise. The world is a terrifying place sometimes and we all want to belong, feeling loved and safe. One day, however, there will be a day that is our last, and none of our fears will matter so much as whether we truly, ever lived.
*Bold, daring, audacious adventures look different to everyone; what this means is to live a life with choices true to you, that align with your values & make you feel alive, rather than following the idea of what you are ‘supposed to do’.