As I neared my 40th birthday this year, I began reviewing my life as a whole. Taking stock of what I've done, where I've been, where I am professionally and personally. Am I where I thought I'd be? Am I where I had dreamt I'd be when I was child? Were the drivers that were important to me then, that drove my career and life path the same drivers that still make me happy (Money, education, career, friends, travel, etc)? If not, why? Have I lived my life as I wanted to? Are there things that I would have liked to accomplish, but haven't? And if not, why?
The "whys" of all this self-analysis really got me thinking...and a lot of what I've not done has boiled down to one word...FEAR! Whether it be fear of failure, fear of success, fear of disappointing someone else, fear of disapproval (internal/external), fear of trying something new, fear of being laughed at...whatever it was...the main element for not doing some of the things that I've really wanted to do or trying something new have been tied to FEAR.
Please keep in mind, I'm not a fearful person in general...but there are things that have overwhelmed me and kept me from trying new things or experiencing life in certain ways. So my vow as I approached 40 was to become fear-LESS! Not a stupid fearless, mind you, but fearless in that those illogical or irrational fears holding me back from experiencing life as a whole and being all that I could be as a person would be tackled head on and I would experience life as I wanted to, not as my fears irrationally dictated.
This blog is to journal that journey...to give some brief insights into ways I'm learning to conquer my fears, whether they be through actions taken or resources discovered. Let's conquer the fear together.
Feel free to share some of your journey with me too! Join me on the journey to be Fearless@40!
