Fear

I love to-do lists. It helps me prioritize what I need to accomplish, focus on that task, and see my progress. Even if it is merely how many tasks have been crossed out. Now that I've graduated college AND I am working full time AND I am training for a half marathon, the thought of focusing on other goals is overwhelming. Africa. GREs. Graduate School. Yikes! I already mentioned that I would much prefer to shrink away into the corner, and that bold is not really my thing. It seems this certain meekness, in my case, predisposes me to fear. Paralyzing fear.



Quotes about Fear:
"The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid." -Lady Bird Johnson

"He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." -Marie Curie

Quotes about Fear & Faith:
"Fear is faith that it won't work out." -Sister Mary Tricky

"You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith." -Mary Manin Morrissey

"There is much in the world to make us afraid. There is much more in our faith to make us unafraid." -Frederick W. Cropp

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

And my favorite" [not because of the sentiment, but because of personal connections]

"Fear is the highest fence." -Dudley Nichols

When I went to summer camp, there was a climbing tower, a high ropes course, a zip line and an initiatives course. On the initiatives course, there were certain activities only the older campers got to attempt. The staffers would impose certain limitations. ie. "Sarah is blind" "Julie can't use her right arm", etc. And you would have to work around these limitations to complete the task. One in particular was a 10ft wall. We had nothing, but had to get everyone over and on to the other side of the wall. The building was burning and that was the only way out, or something was flooding, some sort of disaster scenario. And of course, once you made it to the other side of the wall, you couldn't help get the others get over the wall. (unless they could jump and reach your hand to be pulled over, etc) Of course, being all girls, I think the tallest person was 5'8" or so. Long story short, we ended up getting everyone (10 girls) over this 10ft wall in under 10 minutes! So that is what I think of when I think of that quote. Just cross out fence and insert wall.

For now, I will use to-do lists to help focus my priorities, achieve small goals, take risks, be bold! and conquer large(r) fears. [segue for future post: to be continued...]