Beyond the Fear Membrane

Oh boy is your life ready for this!

If I had to narrow down one daily choice I make which perpetually feeds my perpetual itch for a life worth living, it’s to do a little something that scares me every day.

I know, it sounds a bit like a coffee mug slogan circa ‘95. But let’s just take a look at this for a minute –> do what scares me. I’m talking about my own, unique (let’s face it, often bizarre) quality of risk. It’s like popping through these tiny membranes that kept some audacious piece of me at bay. Once I do it, that thing isn’t risky anymore. It’s just… a thing. So there’s that.

And then there’s this: Fear is a liar. And a thief. And as long we’re avoiding something out of fear, we’re cutting off parts of us. We’re stealing – from ourselves.

We’re like a planet of veritable cripples; people hobbling through life on the bare minimum of their capacities, keeping the vast majority of their power and potency sequestered behind stories of fear. We like to dress fear up sometimes, make it elaborate and dramatic, with plenty of “facts” we can point at to justify and rationalize our semi paralysis, which only perpetuates disempowerment. And of course, you can keep doing that… if you want…

But if you honestly ask yourself what keeps you from really really jumping for the life that you really really desire, I’m gonna guess it’s some kind of story about fear that’s not actually an obstacle at all. Except to the extent you make it one.

And who does this fear serve? You? Nope. Look, there’s a difference between acknowledging the danger in a situation and wisely choosing a big fat “no,” verses feeding some story about yourself and what you can or can’t do. You can do. You can. Unless you allow the lies of fear to steal your life some more.

How many excuses are you using to keep fear alive? How many fingers are you pointing? Let’s all have a moment of silence for money, which gets more blame for people’s limitations than any other alleged culprit imaginable. Money isn’t the obstacle. It’s an unwillingness to be as bold as it takes. It’s the choice to nurture the fear in you instead of feeding the fierce badass you truly are.

What I find immeasurably interesting is that there is no way to calculate, measure, or anticipate what is beyond the fear membrane. Once you choose to do something that pushes your edge, you aren’t just you plus a little something more, but an entirely different you in a sense. It’s not adding a lump of clay to a sculpture, but adding a drop of food coloring to water. It permeates everything.

And the greatest part, which is where the true magic of doing something that scares you a little each and every day comes in, is that the very molecular fabric of the universe interacts with you differently when you aren’t holding parts of yourself back.

Does that sound a little too “out there” to you? Think of something bold you’ve done in the past. Now imagine if you’d never done it. Did it change or create something in your life? Did it set waves of new possibilities rippling through your world? Of course! That’s what risk does. It gives the universe new avenues for contributing to you.

For me, a life worth living is just that – where waves of possibilities are in constant flow and I’m incessantly inviting the universe to show me something even greater. And so I keep blowing through those fear membranes. Every day.

Here’s a final tip: If you’d like to have a more enriching, dynamic, happier life, each time a fear comes up, ask yourself if the fear is greater than you. You’re not small. You know you aren’t. How tremendous could your life be if you began reclaiming all those parts of you hidden behind fear?