fear

This weekend, I committed to my Self that I would tackle a massive project in 2025–you’ll hear about it soon enough because it will start in January.

As I tend to do, I was stoked when the idea came to me and I mapped out what this project would look like—not only did I see it on paper, but I could see it in my mind. However, as the excitement waned, I began to think about the reasons why I might not pull it off, the obstacles that stand in my way, and the sacrifices I might have to make.

I was talking my Self out of the project before it even stood a chance.

Then I thought about Brian Whetten’s book Yes Yes Hell No! and how he suggests the things that get us excited (Yes x 2) but ultimately scare us when it’s time to take action (Hell No!) are exactly what we are supposed to do.

This project is something I’m supposed to do despite the lift ahead of me.

And I almost let fear take me away from it.

Speaking of fear, I found a few quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson that I personally find helpful and might be valuable to you one day:

“What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.”

“Always do what you are afraid to do."

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”

“He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”

I haven’t taken the time to really examine what I’m exactly afraid of, but my initial thoughts are:

• the project is something I’ve never done before, at least like at this scale.
• tons of logistics and coordination that I’ll have to do.
• having to sacrifice other efforts that I enjoy for the year.
• being able to do it all on my own—or finding help.
• getting people to show up.

Eventually, I’ll take time to dive deeper into the fear that almost killed an exciting project before I actually had a chance to get started on it.

Don’t let fear defeat you.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC

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