Fear. Why do we allow fear to hold us back from so much? It grabs us by the arms and pins them behind our back. Often at the exact moment we want to move forward.

For me as a writer, fear looks a lot like writer’s block.

Staring at a blinking cursor, fear tells me that the words I’m writing aren’t important enough, aren’t good enough, that nobody wants to read them, nobody cares, that I have nothing to say, that this book won’t be as good as the last, that I’m not a real writer……and on and on the fear goes.

I read a blog from a New York Times best-selling author who called writer’s block a myth. He shed a light on the true causes of “writer’s block.” Number one was FEAR.

If you and I are going to reach our goals and see our dreams happen, we need to remember a few things about fear:

Fear tells you that you are alone.

But you aren’t. Everyone who has gone down a path before you has felt the same fear. Every writer. Every speaker. Every student. Every performer. Every one is who is anyone has felt the fear. The difference is, they pushed passed it. And you can too.

Fear intends to hold you back.

It will chain you to your failures, to your past, to your mistakes, to your should’s and shouldn’ts. If you let it, fear becomes the glue that will keep you standing still, never moving forward. Don’t let it paralyze you. How? Continue reading.

Fear is a liar.

(Which is also a great song.) It uses its cunning to convince you of something that is very much untrue. Because: You are enough. You have what it takes. You know what you need to know. You are equipped. You are the right person. You can do it.

Fear doesn’t relent.

We just have to learn to see it for what it is and USE it as a motivator.

So when we sit at the computer screen writing the manuscript for your third book (for example), afraid of all of those things and afraid of what people will think, we turn the fear into motivation. We say if FEAR is a liar, that means the exact opposite of what fear is telling us is the truth:

“The words I’m writing ARE important enough. They ARE good enough. People WANT to read them. Readers care. I have SOMETHING to say. I have what it takes.”

And repeat. Until your voice is louder than the fear.