“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Every morning, for my meditation and thought for the day, I read Silent Unity’s Daily Word magazine. For thirty years, Daily Word has provided me with thought-provoking inspirational messages and Friday, September 13, 2019, was no different. The message was entitled“Fearless” and it challenged us to tackle fear head-on. It suggested that “Facing fears meant moving through it, not around it” and after reading this, I had to admit that although I don’t spend much time thinking about my fears, I have avoided a few of them. How about you? Do you have any fears? Do you address your fears or do you avoid them?
Because we live on a planet with billions of very different and unique individuals, life, itself can be frightening. Yet, it is our life experiences and our perceptions of these experiences that serve as the creation of our phobias and fears. But are we allowing these fears to dictate our life choices? Do we face our fears head-on? Or do we let them stagnate us?
One of my biggest fears is being unprepared for retirement. See over the years, I’ve made a few unwise financial decisions so for me, not having enough money and/or benefits for retirement is a scary thought. So in an effort to face this fear, six months ago, after working at a company for almost 7 unhappy years, I “fearfully” decided to began my job search at a time when most of my friends were retiring, I was restarting.
In my 50’s, with my confidence firmly rooted in my skills and abilities, I re-entered the job market. I knew I had skills so that part wasn’t frightful. However, I was very frightened of the unknowns that accompany change. Nonetheless, I prepared my resume’ for distribution, emailed it to a company at 111 am, got home from work at 6:30 pm, checked my messages and had received a call at 2 pm requesting an interview. Surprisingly when I faced my fear, I landed the first job that I applied for. My new job is rewarding and I enjoy it. I assist clients and their families, have great benefits, a 401k, make more money than the other job and have a down to earth, supportive, encouraging, and nurturing, supervisor.
This meditations assurance that “when we face our fears, they disappear. We learn and we grow” is ABSOLUTELY true. The benefits of facing my fear were worthwhile and had I not faced them, I wouldn’t be moving forward. I wouldn’t have experienced growth and I wouldn’t have been able to address my retirement fears. Instead, the fear did disappear and as a result, I am much happier.
So be mindful, no matter the fear- relationSHIPS, being heartbroken, being alone, failing, succeeding, or even a medical challenge– you CAN CHOOSE to be fearless. Try it. So, the next time you are faced with a fear, take a boxing stance and square up with it. CHOOSE to deal with it head-on. Seize the opportunity to release your fears by going straight through them. Simply step out in faith and make the decision to intentionally live your LIFE FEARLESSLY !!!
SHIP TALK: What is your biggest fear? Are you facing it head-on? If not, why not?
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Thanks so much. I appreciate your compliment. Putting me out there for the world to judge is scary, But, I’m, trying to live fearlessly. I decided to start a blog so that I could give people different perspective to view things from. Much of life is how we view it. It really is just as simple as making up our minds to do better and be better. The most important relationSHIP we can ever have is with GOD because without HIM we wouldn’t know WHO we are. Without knowing WHO we are we, we are unable to make any kind of VALUABLE contributions to any other relationSHIPS. Once again thanks for reading my posts and navigating these things we call relationSHIPS with me. Please share with your friends and family and continuing sailing with me. Hopefully, you’ve read them all
Great blog!! God is working on you. Beautifully written