What Do You Fear?

Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Do you want to go on an adventure with me?” my brother asked recently.

I didn’t even hesitate. “No.”

That might surprise anyone who reads my books. My heroines are all brave and bold and unflinching (mostly) in the face of great dangers.

I flinch a LOT. My imagination is big enough to make a trip to the mailbox fraught with unimaginable danger.

I’m a wimp.

I’m a coward.

I’ve done things outside my comfort zone, but it always feels life-threatening. I’ve blogged before about embracing fear. As I get older, it gets harder and harder to embrace fear. Or even happiness. Lol

Change. It’s hard. Even change I made happen.

My brother looked surprised. “You used to go on adventures with me.”

Why yes, I did. They terrified the crap out of me, but I was more afraid of being left behind. Looking back at some of his “adventures,” I should have embraced being left behind. Lol

It’s a miracle both of us survived to adulthood.

You might think this is a blog about facing and overcoming fear.

It’s not.

I think fear serves a purpose. It gives us pause, it causes us to ponder and consider before moving forward. There have been times when it has probably saved my life. (I will never know for sure, because I didn’t go into the scary place to find out. Lol)

But there are times when I wish my fear trigger were less, um, sensitive. I know fear sometimes causes me to miss opportunities that aren’t actually life threatening and would be to my benefit. When I’ve pushed back against fear, I’ve met great people, done interesting things, expanded my world with new opportunities.

One of the biggest, scary things I’ve done somewhat recently was to take control of publishing my books. The first time I pushed “publish” on a book, I was so excited.

The world was less so. Lol

But I’ve pressed forward. Met and connected with other authors (many of whom have visited this blog to talk about their books- search my Why I Wrote archives!), and found people who actually like to read my books.

Because I’m a reader myself, I can’t tell you how delightful it is to have someone read your book and like it.

It also has opened me up to criticism. Not everyone likes what I’ve written, but I’m okay with that. I don’t like everything I read either. I will confess that EVERY TIME I publish a new book, I feel fear.

I like to be liked. I like my books to be liked. But a negative review hasn’t killed me yet. Lol

What do you fear? Or are you too brave for fear?

I love comments so much that I pick a favorite to receive my monthly AnaBanana gift basket ($25 value).  (And don’t forget that once a quarter I’ll be tossing in something fun from the Perilously Fun Shop!) Recipient is announced the first blog post of the new month.

Perilously yours,

Pauline