Wanted to pass along this insightful article by Dr. Nancy Wall, Tampa Bay MatchMakers (Nov 15, 2010) titled "What's holding you back from accomplishing your goals?"
http://tampabaymatchmakers.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/whats-holding-you-back-from-accomplishing-your-goals/

Keep moving forward and LiveFearlessly!

Today's Quote: Author Unknown

"Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death."  ~Author Unknown

Today's Quote: Samuel Butler

"Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself." ~Samuel Butler

Today's Quote: Katherine Paterson

"To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another." ~Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved

Today's Quote: Mark Twain

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." ~Mark Twain

Today's Quote: Brendan Francis

"Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them." ~Brendan Francis

Reclaiming Creativity

Do you remember when you were a kid and you lived life unabashedly? You threw yourself into finger painting, storytelling, and played so hard that you collapsed exhausted in bed at night? Your imagination was fresh, vibrant, and unbridled.

Somewhere along the way, some of us lost that. The problem is that if we don't celebrate the talent and creativity within us, nurturing it as we go, we lose it or forget that we even had a creative gene in our body. In my case, I never thought of myself as creative in any sense. Why? Well...I did a lot of comparisons with other people's talent, especially with that of my mom. My mom was the writer, poet, and artist. Her talent seemed unending and up against that, how could I truly compare? I remember when I was younger, I wrote poetry and even had my first poem published at 7 years old. I still remember the words verbatim. Even though I was published, I didn't very much feel validated. And truly...writing poetry is not really the cool thing to do when you're a kid, at least not according to your peers. So I didn't really admit that too freely. That's not the cool thing! Now, I loved to draw, but knew that I'd never compare to mom....so where do you go from there. I guess I measured creativity by who was better at it, not by what truly gave me pleasure or what I could continue to improve on in myself.

It wasn't until recently that I ventured into the creative realm once more, slowly melting into my creative self. It was time to reclaim every part of my life, starting here. Again, I didn't want the fear of failure keep me from doing something that I perhaps loved. This time, I vowed it would be about me and solely about me. No comparisons. Or at least I'd try my very best to avoid it. Not allowing myself to feel overshadowed by someone else's successes. That was unfair to them and to me. I wish I had grown up with this perspective. Again, it's baby steps and I'm moving forward.

In regards to my mom, I recently confessed that even up until recently I never considered myself creative. Ironically, she saw me completely the opposite. It was her turn to shock me. I was flabbergasted when she then confided in me that it wasn't until recently that she considered herself an artist. Her admission left me speechless! Truly amazing how our perspectives shape us and the shades of our realities, isn't it?

Now the hard part is figuring out what I love to do. So I've been unlocking the mind vault, traipsing through hidden recesses of childhood memories to recall those things that I found joy in. Photography, writing, creating and fixing things...that where I've started. I'm thrilled to say, one adventure is leading to another.

Keep making baby steps everyone and live life fearlessly!

~Fearless@40

New Year, New Perspective

2011 was a year full of growth for me. A lot of painful stretching, but good growth nonetheless. I decided that I was going to break away from the fear that's been holding me back.The thought of living life was exhilarating, terrifying, and overwhelming...all of these emotions flooding at me. But the biggest emotion? Relief.

I realized that underlying many of my fears was the fear of failure. I'm a perfectionist. Growing up, failure to my parents, and subsequently to me, wasn't an option. This perspective also had me worry extensively that OTHER people were judging me, whether I failed or succeeded. Now, that's not to say that there weren't those wishing I fail miserably or laughing without mirth at my failures, but overall I don't think that's generally what was going on....just in my head.

So, with the new year I decided I'm not making New Year's resolutions...instead, I'm making daily resolutions. That relieves some of the pressure to be perfect and get it all done by the end of the year. It also lessens the let-down or disappointment in myself if I don't achieve all that I wanted to achieve.

I know that every day begins with baby steps. However, each day brings with it pride that I'm moving forward.

More to come....live fearlessly, regardless of what age you are!

~Fearless@40