You would think that a book titled “Feel the Fear and do it anyway”
would only be about dealing with your fears, but it is not. It is about
opening yourself. living a fuller more fulfilling life and finding
happiness, peace and balance. Many of these self help style books are
not cross culture friendly, meaning that they might not apply to you if
you don’t live in the USA or Europe but not this book, it is written for
a very wide audience. You can read this book and benefit from it no
matter how old you are or what your gender is.
We all have our fears and things that hold us back. This book is not
about fixing these fears or trying to find out why we have them, it is
about overcoming them, accepting that we will always be afraid of things
and how to use that fear as a stepping stone to get to where we want to
go.
Some of my favorite concepts from the book:
Taking responsibility of our lives without blaming anyone else or
beating ourselves up. I used to go back and forth to these two extremes
and always felt stressed and unhappy. Now I can easily tell myself
that other people’s happiness is not my responsibility without feeling
guilty. My happiness is my responsibility and no one else’s. It is not
fair or healthy to blame other people for what goes on in our lives if
we have decided to give up control of our lives.
Saying “Yes” to the universe. Accept what the universe has given you
and say yes to it and everything will change. This concept is very
different that normal positive thinking. It stops at acceptance and
then the rest is where you have to work for change. Just thinking
positively does not change your situation, it is only the very first but
very important step.
“Act as if you were important” There was one really interesting
story about a woman who hated her job and thought it was only temporary
until she found something better and was instructed by the author to act
as if she were really important and mattered at her job even if she
felt otherwise. A week later she returned and told the author how
things had changed dramatically at her job. She took a plant and
pictures to make her cubicle better, she went to work earlier and had
more energy, even her co workers noticed the change and commented on it.
She was told that whatever she was on, to keep taking it. Sometimes
we trick ourselves into thinking that we don’t matter, that our
contribution is too small or irrelevant but that is so untrue. If you
start to believe that your contribution is very important you will act
accordingly.
The best thing about this book is that it is not preachy and is full
of tools that can help you on your journey and little stories about
people who either felt the fear and did it or those who buckled under
the strain of their fear. It is like a friend talking you out of a
mess, slowly but surely.
It also couldn’t have come at a better timing for me. I got over my
own fears and started my crochet business and failed at selling finished
items, which turned out to be a huge blessing. I realized I was more
talented at creating and selling designs instead. At first I was afraid
no one would be interested or buy anything, but I felt the fear and did
it anyway and found out that I had been wrong. I felt that there were
these amazing designers out there who much be so much more talented than
I am so why would anyone buy from me, until I came across something
Doris Chan had written who is a prolific designer with hundreds of very
successful designs and how she became a designer totally by chance, an
opportunity presented itself and she took it. I had to ask myself why
was I afraid of taking the opportunity that is sitting right in front
of me. I am still anxious whenever I publish a new pattern but it is
not the crippling kind of anxiousness, it is a liberating kind. The
ability to step out of my comfort zone is amazing.
http://www.chocolatemintsinajar.com/blog/2010/08/feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway-a-review-and-why-everyone-should-read-this-book/
Does this inspire you? Buy now from Amazon!
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