What Do You Fear Most?

Fear does funny things to us. It holds us back from being who we’re meant to be. It keeps us in bad relationships. It lets others go before us and reap the benefits.

So, how do you shut out fear? Yesterday, I talked about what I fear and why it’s so important to let go of it. I talked about how shutting it out has made me a better blogger, not to mention person.

Now it’s your turn.

What do you fear most? I’m not talking about spiders or deep bodies of water, although those are legitimate fears. I’m talking about the fear that holds you back from telling your story. The truth of your story, not just the pretty stuff.

The fear that keeps you from commenting on a blog post that you can so relate to, but doing so would mean someone would know your secret.

The fear that when you hit publish on a post, it’ll go viral – or it won’t.

The fear that your thoughts will bring out the ugly people. Or that what you have to say won’t matter.

Yep, those fears.

But how do you get over them? How do you shut them out?

• Identify the fear that’s holding you back. How will you know which one (or more) it is? Usually it’s the thing that makes you look at another blogger and go, wow. Because that wow is your fear saying, ‘I could never do that’ or ‘I’m not as good as they are.’ Sometimes, it’s the feeling that you can’t shake. So, if you keep going back to a topic or post or part of your story you feel you just need to write, but haven’t gotten brave enough to do so, then that’s an indication of your fear.
• Process the fear and determine why it’s something you fear. Before you can overcome a fear, you have to face it. You have to realize that it exists, but you also have to determine why. Is your story one that is unique, that many people haven’t experienced, or one that many have? Is it a taboo topic or one that is controversial? These things can make blogging more difficult, mostly because of potential audience issues. So if your fear is that you’ll lose readers (like one of mine was), then this could be why you haven’t written about it.
• Tell your fear to shut the hell up. Yes, talk to it. Yell at it. Shut the door in its face. But, don’t ever apologize for it, or open the door back up to let it back in. Because shutting out fear is how we beginning blogging our truth. And blogging our truth is how we help others – and ourselves.

So take those fears and bowl them down with a little bit of courage, and you’ll be on your way to blogging your truth. Join me tomorrow for the next step, Ignore Haters.

For more of the 31 Days Of Blogging Your Truth posts, click the image below. And don’t forget to use that link when you share, along with the hashtag #bloggingyourtruth.