If you read the blog entitled “Guiding Word,” you know that some friends and I choose a word at the beginning of each year to serve as a guide for our thinking, feeling, and acting. If you haven’t read it, you should. Ha Ha. I’m feeling pretty upbeat this morning, perhaps because of the gift of extra morning time. Church begins at 12:30 for those of us in the Camden Ward this year, and generally speaking, my mind works better during the first part of the day.
But I digress. The purpose of this post is to talk about Christy’s word a few minutes: Courage. It’s something we all need a double dose of from time to time, and her post about it is so inspiring that I can’t stop thinking about it. Check it out at http://christypeake.blogspot.com.
Her post reminded me of a book entitled Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. Dr. Jeffers says that people see fear in the wrong way, and that it’s actually a green light to keep going. Trepidation is undeniably real, but we just need to push forward, to feel the fear and do it anyway. Sure, security and routine are safe, but can’t they be a little risky?
Jeffers believes that the killer fear is that you won’t be able to handle something, and she suggests practical ways to help you get to the point where you know you can handle anything that comes your way. You must practice positive thinking every single day until sooner or later the positivity you create will begin to seem more real.
We all know this already, but there’s just something about Jeffers’ writing that makes you really take heed to what she’s saying. She says we need energizing everyday, and that just like eating breakfast energizes and fuels our body, reading inspirational quotes and books fuels our psyches. Take control of your mental inputs, Jeffers advises. Say things like, “I am a confident person in every situation.” Never be fearful of mistakes. Lighten up and be happy that you had the experience…that you tried.
Wouldn’t be awful to come to the end of your life and still be thinking coulda, shoulda, woulda. From teaching Human Growth and Development, I’ve learned that the #1 regret of elderly people is that they DIDN’T give things a try, that they let their fears hold them back. By that time, it’s too late to make that call, start that business, write that article, or fly around the world. I don’t know about you, but I will not be one of those people who says on her death bed, “Sure wish I’d taken more chances.”
Jeffers offers a perfect example of how she worked through humans’ #1 fear, rejection. These are her words lifted right from her website: “It took many, many rejections before my first book, FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY, was finally accepted by a publisher. The worst rejection letter I ever got was that “Lady Di could be bicycling nude down the street giving this book away and nobody would read it.” Can you imagine being told that? I bet that publisher has regretted that snide comment hundreds of times. What if Jeffers had listened? What if she had given up? What if she had felt the fear and stopped?
I want to be more like Susan Jeffers and Christy Peake. I’m going to feel the fear and be courageous enough to do it anyway. What about you? As they say, life expands or contracts according to one’s courage.
mom's musings 
Thanks for the thoughts this morning, Jayne! It’s exactly what I needed to hear…
And that’s going to be me. I’m going to do it anyway.
I'm looking forward to all of us encouraging each other to "just do it."you certainly have been on a blog roll…I love it….I am always inspired by your thoughts…always great insight and reminders of things we should know and implement but don’t always! Rejection and fear…gosh my favorite combination of a nemesis! 12:30 church is not such a bad thing, once you get accustomed to it!
Yes, I have been on a roll! A great friend gave me some writing stuff on January 1, and that's been a catalyst to get going.Okay Jayne, you made me cry! The more I think about courage – the more I “get” how hard it’s going to be to implement – but that’s why I chose it I guess. I need to Get Dr. Jeffers’ book! The title of her book fits my feelings perfectly! Thank you, my friend!
I surely didn't mean to make you cry. But then, maybe that's a good sign because it shows how strongly you feel about this. I thought about you this morning when I needed courage to make "the long walk to the front," but I felt the fear and didn't do it anyway. I sat complacently in my seat while I enjoyed everyone else's testimony. There's always next month.Your thoughts always inspire me.
Thanks Miriam. What's your word for the year?I think my problem is not so much fear but wanting a perfect road map, a complete idea of what I am accomplishing before I set out to do it.
I end up fighting a lot of analysis paralysis!
Analysis paralysis...great term. If I waited until everything was perfect, I'd never accomplish anything. In fact, sometimes things come to me as I working along.I HA VE SO VERY LITTLE COURAGE, A FACT THAT answers why i have never been a bishop, it takes courage to give advice to divorce to a lds young couple, and i could never do that…i have jess a friend going through one and keep telling her to don’t do it, what kind of courage is that?????