What are we all afraid of?

Fear. It's truly an ugly four letter word. It's inside us all just waiting to spoil our plans. I had coffee with my friend and sometimes business partner, Tammy, last week. We were talking about our plans for our businesses, what was working and what wasn't. I had started to go through my list of gonnas with her. You know, "I'm going to...", and then "I'm going to do ...", when I was struck by the reason I hadn't done any of my gonnas yet, FEAR. I said it out loud for the first time without an excuse as to why I hadn't finished the things on my to-do list. "Tammy, I'm just scared." And it was the truth. Tammy told me about how she was scared to do some of the things on her to-do list as well. And I thought, "How can so many bright individuals be so scared. What are we all afraid of'"?

Someone once told me that fear is just False Evidence Appearing Real. We all have it and it's different for each of us. I look at my son and he is fearless. Even when we play hide and go seek and I jump out at him he doesn't even flinch. It seems that most of us are born with bright-eyed optimism ready to go after our dreams with gusto. After a little while trying to find our way in the world we shrink down to our sometimes very small circle of comfort. We often look at the ways others view us as the truth, when in reality it's not. And it's also none of our business what others think of us anyway. Even the most successful and famous people have just as many nay-sayers as they do fans. So what's really stopping us from reaching our dreams?

We all have our own battles that we fight within. What if we just did what we wanted to do? What if we just asked for what we want instead of hoping that it will come? What if we did one thing today to take us out of our comfort zone? We might say something stupid, or look foolish, but who cares that much anyway? Honestly, no one in this life is as hard on us as we are on ourselves. I don't see any shows like ESPN highlighting our shortcomings like a Monday morning quarterback. (unless your a celebrity and you've been featured on TMZ) I say this as someone struggling to get out of my comfort zone, which is getting smaller by the minute. I will not look at the "False Evidence" and believe that it's real. And I hope that you will do the same.