Don't Let Fear Drive

I believe in fear.  It can help us from time to time.  For instance, I fear being hit by an automobile and that is why I don’t walk into traffic.  I fear falling off a tall building and that is why I don’t peer over the side of a skyscraper.

But I can’t let fear drive my life.  If I allowed fear to drive, I would never have tried for half of the jobs I’ve held.  I would never have sung my first solo nor gone for a job interview on my 65^th birthday, which I landed. 

Fear almost derailed my early writing career.  Every time it came time to press “Publish” I panicked.  “What if nobody reads this?  What if it is lousy writing?  What if they laugh at me?”

If I had listened to fear after my first public drum solo on ‘Wipeout”, I would have quit drumming right on the spot.  It was awful and I was embarrassed. 

Fear can be a good thing if kept in check, but fear is a lousy driver.  It runs off the road.  Fear stops in mid sentence.  Fear keeps an otherwise great police officer from going on duty because he/she never knows what they will face on any given day.  And Fear has derailed many a good great enterprise.

Fear can’t drive because it first wants to see around every curve, up every hill and behind every wall and through ever doorway.  And there are some amazing discoveries on the other side of fear. 

I’m going to do the driving, thank you very much.  I’m going to continue trying some things, spreading my wings, stepping out into new adventures, even in spite of my fears. 

I believe in my ideas.  I believe in my abilities to accomplish and become better.  I believe in my sense of right and wrong and in my ability to make some great choices.  And I believe in my hopes and dreams.

Life does not come with a guarantee. 

P Michael Biggs

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