5 Reasons to Fear Not

“Be brave, keep strong. The world needs you: WOMAN.”

Charlia moulton-Campbell

Fear of taking that next step, that leap, that jump as they say can become overwhelming. I was very comfortable with what I did best in my head – teaching, motherhood, the usual. For me it was more about failing and then dwelling on what people would say, rather than just thinking about the process. I always had thoughts to share, people to inspire and moves to make, but many of these actions were written down somewhere and just lived there. I didn’t want to see or face any possibility of failure.

According to the Merriam- Webster dictionary fear is an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. Fear of unknown situations usually leads to anxiety and discomfort. I never wanted to face discomfort. My life would then appear to be in disarray and would deviate from the notion that I had it all together. We need to understand that fear is a concept and once we overcome our fears we can take on any challenge.

Below are 5 reasons I believe we should not fear…

1. God’s got you- Psalm 46:1 states:
   “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” This bible verse has been my guide for as long as I know, but I must confess that I still struggled with fear. Fear has been my greatest enemy for a long time. Today, I know that once God is a part of your story, once you put him first and have faith in Him you can accomplish anything you want. I always knew I wanted to follow my dream, my passion of writing. I knew I had to share my story. Growing up in a traditional home, my life unfolded more on the non-traditional path. I want to share this with the world, since many believe life has to follow a certain flow or you will be fated to end badly. I knew I wanted to explore my dream of writing professionally, but I was ridiculously fearful. When I got the opportunity to co-author, I knew it was an opportunity I should take. Even then, I still struggled with fear and uncertainty. However, I decided to fight fear and follow my dream of becoming an author. When you fight fear the results are endless. Always remember- God’s got you.
2. Keep your village busy – Growing up my mother always had her village, these were a few close friends or relatives who she would go to for support, advise and reassurance. At a very young age I learned that everyone needed a village. There is always going to be times when you need to call on someone. This is not a sign of weakness, but indeed a sign of strength in my opinion. When one is secure enough to call on a support team, that exhibits a trait of strength. When you become fearful in situations think about your support system, your village. Believe it or not we have people who are rooting for us and will support our ventures. We must come to a place where we are comfortable reaching out to talk a situation through with a village member or ask for advice. Keep your village busy!
3. You can always try again- “If you fall get back up, guess what you might fall again, but never forget to get up and keep trying.” What if Walt Disney refused to try again when he was fired at first for lacking imagination and good ideas? Oftentimes, our greatest fears come from the thought of failure. We fear that if we try we might fail. We fear that if we fail we will be branded as failures and criticized by everyone. Please understand that failure is a necessary part of the process, sometimes we need to fail to become stronger. Sometimes we need to fail to get to the next step. Sometimes we fail because we made the wrong choices. The good thing about failing is that we have many opportunities to always try again. We can use our failures as lessons or learning experiences. When we know we can keep trying our fear becomes invisible.
4. It is not as difficult as it seems – If failure was not an option, would our situations prove to be so difficult? When we want to do something new or change something it indeed makes us fearful. We struggle with what the consequences might be or the outcome. Newness or change might be a big move, but at the end of the day it is not as difficult as we think. When God asked Moses to lead His people out of Egypt it seemed like a surmountable task. If Moses had focused on his fear and not his faith in God, he would not have obeyed God and the results of this story would have been different. Attacking your goals and following your dreams is not as difficult as we believe. Let us not change our story because of fear, let us live our story because we conquered our fears.
5. Fear breeds anxiety and stress- when we live in fear we become products of fear. We worry more breeding anxiety and stress. Essentially fear can impact our lifestyle and health. Fear can result in many serious illnesses as simple as it seems, it can be detrimental. I am not saying we are going to be fearless in every situation. If we make it a habit of fearing less and taking on challenges with a little more faith we are preserving our lives, we are diminishing anxiety and stress. Years ago, I was so fearful of what people would think, what they would have to say and what they would do as a result. Today, I still listen and take advise, but I do not get caught up in negativity and doubt. If you have faith it will always happen. The key is to find your balance and make it work.

Let us fight to fear less and follow our passion and dreams.