Conquering Fear
The storm clouds ahead provide cover for a dark force that has one goal in mind; it is to send us back from where we came. It's the villain in disguise, the misrepresentation of all that is good, and the killer of dreams. It is fear, the dark force’s most powerful weapon, and it’s not afraid to use it.
Fear comes cloaked in several forms, it’s mission; stop you before you ever begin your writing journey. There is the all-too common fear of failure that you first encountered in elementary school when you were afraid to tell that girl or boy that you liked them. There is fear of success that mysteriously rides beneath the ocean ‘s surface on the back of its partner, guilt, with plans of punching small holes in your ship so you go down slowly. Finally, there is the ultimate fear, that of the unknown. This is the fatal blow that either stops many writers from ever beginning their journey or sends them plummeting to the depths of the sea soon after they do. The dark force will be relentless in its use of fear against you. Despite such a bombardment, you, the writer will always be the one who determines the outcome.
As a writer, you’ll encounter the fear of failure daily. The easiest way to get past such fear is to change your outlook. Success is the direct result of failure. You must come to grips with the relationship between the two if you’re going to make it, not only in this industry, but in life. Both business and life is defined by how you deal with “rejection.” You have two choices You can let "rejection" chip away at your will to succeed until you give up all together or you can use “rejection" as a step toward success. It is nothing more than a small hurdle. How can this be? It's only natural to feel down when you're told that your work isn't good enough. Remember, you must swim down the murky river before you can get to the clear, blue sea. Sometimes the murky river is long, but the only way you won't get to the sea is by quitting. So, the only way to get to where we’re going is to set our course into the storm and engage the dark force in a manner it will never expect.
In the business of writing, you want to be the one to determine your course. The dark force uses the fear of failure against because it hopes you choose a safer course, one which it controls. Indecisiveness is allied with fear and they work together beautifully. Making well-thought out decisions counters such fear. You want clients coming to you instead of you cowering to their terms. But every decision must be the right decision for you, not for them. Passing up a deal because the time is not right can be a good decision. Evaluate possible consequences, make pivotal decisions, and stand by those decisions with resolve. Sometimes even the wrong decision is a god decision because it becomes a learning experience and that is precisely how you treat failure. All of it is a learning experience. The worst decision is no decision. Failure doesn’t even exist as long you don’t become reckless. Persevere. The dark force is counting on insecurity. Don’t give it any help.
The fear to succeed can be equally as frustrating. Perhaps a family member or good friend is a writer. They’ve been writing for years with little monetary success or social acclaim. You write something that becomes successful. Will they take offense? Will your friends assume you are too good for them? Conscience can stand in the way of what you're trying to achieve. You can’t allow forces that you have no control over to act as barriers to success. You don’t alter your course to avoid the submarine that you can’t see. Take your chances. You can win the battle against the fear of success by not allowing your visions of success to get too far ahead of your ship. Ground yourself. Your circle will be very proud of your success. If anything, they may turn to you for advice and support, or even use you as inspiration to work harder toward their own goals. Only you can get in your way!
The most common and frightening type of fear is the fear of the unknown. Its presence surrounds and penetrates every pore of your ship, mind, and heart. Unlike the other types of fear that can merely wound you, the fear of the unknown is the ultimate manifestation of anything the dark force can use to derail your dreams. Far worse, it is already inside you just waiting for the dark force to tap into it. It calls to the dark force. You have no way of stopping it! The fear of the unknown is out to sink your ship. What if I can't pay my bills? What if I become famous and my name is splattered all over the tabloids? Oh, no, what if nothing happens at all? The fear of the unknown can appear in just about any form, even disguised as something as beautiful as love. The only way to overcome it is to will your way through it.
Simply because the clouds on the horizon are dark doesn’t mean the storm ahead is terrible. A tremendous reward may await you on the other side. The only way you’ll know is by going through it with determination and drive. The unknown is as equally positive as it is negative. It is your perception of it that decides how you face it. By not dealing with it, you won’t be able to pay your bills. You won’t have to worry about fame and tabloids because no one will know your name. The one certainty is that nothing will happen at all. The choice is obvious. It’s why you came on the journey. The beauty is that once conquer the fear of the unknown, the same unyielding power can be used against the dark force to conquer not only the fear of the unknown, but all fear!
We maintain our course toward the great beyond because we’re determined not to give in to the invisible barriers the dark force of the writer ‘s world wants us to believe lay in our path. The dark force wants us to believe fear is one of those barriers. We know otherwise. Fear is a natural, psychological emotion that we manufacture within ourselves. We can use it as inspiration to conquer the obstacles that we know exist before us. Like the old saying, "good can't exist without evil," the gratification of success wouldn't exist without the emotion of fear. They are bound together. It's our job as writers to keep them bound by persistence on our journey. That’s not to say that the water ahead will be calmer. The dark force has many other methods for sending us off course. Either the dark force will achieve its objective, or we’ll reached our destination. The race has begun.
As our ship closes in on the storm. Something appears on the horizon. We can’t make out exactly what it is. Some believe it’s another ship. Others say it’s a monster. Could it be another one of the dark force’s ticks to confuse us? Maybe it’s all of them and maybe that is a good thing. We determine for ourselves what it turns out to be because we control our course. By controlling our course, we control the outcome of any battle the dark force may wage against us. We need fear to propel us. Conquering fear fulfills us.