Has Fear Kept You From Writing Your Book?

I talked to a lady yesterday who has the dream of writing her book for over 7 years now. Yes, 7 years. And you know why she hasn't yet written that book even though she could outline the steps she needed to take?

FEAR

Here's the thing about fear when it comes to writing your book:

At some point and to some level, you’re going to be afraid of writing your book.

Don’t feel bad about that.

EVERY author feels a certain level of fear. That includes me.

You feel awful feeling knowing you have books in you but you scared to write them.

You're afraid of writing a bad book;

What if no one likes it?

What I want you to remember about fear is that it’s not necessarily

bad.

Fear serves a greater purpose.

From the earliest time of our existence, fear has served as a response to help keep us safe.

It is a survival mechanism.

It motivates us to stay clear of danger.

We evolved to fear things that could hurt us, and by that, fear works to help keep us safe.

The problem with fear is when we allow small, or sometimes irrational fears to stop us from doing things we should be doing, the fear becomes destructive, rather than protective.

That fear that has kept you from taking the first steps to writing your book is destructive no matter how much sense it makes.

The key is to not allow the fear to hold you back. Rather, acknowledge it, and take steps to counter it.

In order to beat the fears you face, you must first understand the framing of fear. When you do, you are able to win the war again fear, and prevent it from taking ground in the future.

To understand fear framing, let's consider a bungee jump.

So people grin with excitement at the thought of taking a jump. And there are others who would shake in their pants with fear at the very thought.

What's the difference between these two groups of people?

Framing.

Let's consider Excitement: What happens (biologically) when one is excited?

First, your heart rate rises as your brain produce more adrenaline

Next, you start to get jittery and break out into a cold sweat - a sign of increased cortisol

Third, you develop tunnel vision; you can no longer see or think beyond your excitement - a sign of increased norepinephrine.

Mind you, all of this is happening within a matter of seconds, if not milliseconds.

Now, let's consider what happens (biologically) when one gets scared:

First, your heart rate rises as your brain produce more adrenaline

Next, you start to get jittery and break out into a cold sweat - a sign of increased cortisol

Third, you develop tunnel vision; you can no longer see or think beyond your fear - a sign of increased norepinephrine.

Once again, all of this is happening within a matter of seconds, if not milliseconds.

I'm sure you can see that your body responds the same way whether you're excited or afraid. So, if your body is going to respond the same way anyway, it might serve you to learn how to reframe experiences. After all, fear is excitement…with a negative frame, and excitement is fear…with a positive frame.

Here's an exercise I take my clients through whenever they're consumed by fear- whether it's to write a book, start a business, or quit an abusive relationship (with an employer or lover):

First, you list all the fears you have associated with that which you want to do- in our case, writing your book.

Now ask yourself the following questions:

1. For each of the listed fears, "Is this really possible"?

2. If the fear actually came to pass, what would the consequences be?

3. When you finally write your book, what benefit will it give you?

4. Who really needs to read your book, and how does it help them?

5. Who really suffers if you never get to write your book? In what way?

This is a powerful exercise. Even just by reading these questions, you can sense the fear turning to excitement. That's because the questions force you to begin reframing the situation.

Fear can actually help you if you take the right perspective on it.

Remember the roller coaster example. You cannot choose your

physiological response to a bungee jump, but with a little dedicated practice, you CAN choose how you interpret that physiological response.

Your personal (subjective) experience can be “afraid” or “excited,” but your body treats the physical response the same.

This means you can reframe fear into excitement, and retrain your

brain to not be afraid of writing your book—but rather be excited about all the benefits writing your book will bring.

If this has been a long-held dream of yours, but you've not done it yet because you've been afraid that you're not a good writer, or

don't have the time to write it, I'd like to offer you some help.

I have a program specifically designed to help you finally get your book written and published without you doing any of the writing or other heavy lifting. I'll simply conduct 2 ( maybe 3 ) interviews with you, after which time, my team and I will get to work writing your book for you- in a voice that represents you.

We will do everything for you. Your only real work will be to smile and pose with your very own book with you listed as the author, bearing the message you've always wanted to bring to the world.

If you'd like to know more about this service, kindly send me a direct message, and we'll begin the conversation from there.