If it scares you, odds are it's worthwhile

There you are... looking at what you’ve just written on the page... you think about your mom and dad, your friends and your significant other... what will they say? What will people think about what you’re committing to paper... you even question whether you should leave something in your story or not......

Odds are you should.

When you’re writing, it’s natural to have fear because once you publish something, your words cease to be yours, they become the readers’ and that’s a frightening thought because what if people understand things incorrectly. Well, this is actually a possibility with anything you do any day of your life. If people feel the need to misconstrue what you say over coffee, you’ll hear about it.

So that’s when you have to ask the real question... why do you want to include that part in your story? Is it just because you want to irk someone or is it because it’s something you believe in. The deeper the reason and motivation, the more you should follow your instinct because if something moves you, odds are it’ll move someone else.

Then what to do?

The decision to not include something is based on fear... imagine letting go of your fear. Imagine being true to your vision and committing to a topic you think is important to share. Picture yourself not judging and not being judged... engaging in dialogue, conversing.

Now imagine depriving yourself of this bliss, just because you want to remain in someone’s good graces. The problem is that eventually, if you only write to make others happy, you will be left without things to say, because someone, somewhere will take offense to your perspective.

So by all means... let go, be true to your word... and put it down on paper. 

The victory of failure

In life, some people fail. It’s a fact that it happens… yet in their failure is victory. It means they didn’t leave things to chance, they didn’t wonder, they went for it and in life, many of the biggest victors have had to swallow the bitter pill that is failure.

A while back I read a blog post that got me to thinking about failure and how we fear it. In essence though, the worst failure anyone can ever have is to never try. This isn’t some new found knowledge, it’s stuff we know yet once in a while we need a reminder that it’s not only OK to fail, it’s actually a great thing because you realize that many failures are not as bad as you worried about.

As humans, we do a marvelous job at imagining the worst and making things out to be endlessly more tragic than they are. Take for instance scary movies… the ones that truly scare me are the ones that don’t fill out the blanks and don’t show me the monster, instead leaving it to my own devices to imagine the worst. Failure is the same. Instead of being a five-headed leviathan, it is just a series of events, they are just things that happen and the fear of failure is often paralyzing enough to not even try.

As a surfer, I’ve learned many lessons in life and one of them is that if you don’t try, you’ll never progress. If I’d never tried an Air Roll Spin or a backflip for fear of failure, I never would have landed one, or dozens as I have. If I didn’t take off on a shady ledge, I wouldn’t have gotten some of the better barrels in my life, and just because I tried and gave myself the chance. Sure, sometimes you get a closeout and you also tag the reef, the thing is that the reward is definitely worth the risk.

The other thing that people fear about failure is public opinion and bully tactics. If you fail, people will make fun of you… I can understand fearing this because no one wants to be the fool… still, if you never try, if you never give yourself the chance to fail, you are also never giving yourself the chance to succeed and prove those people wrong. 

You have to realize, oftentimes, life rewards those who fail and persevere and it leaves alone all those who wonder. So here’s to the fire of failure to come upon us, forge our steel and let us carve our success.

Peace, love and maki rolls

Method to madness: Fear can inspire

Fear paralyzes, it robs of sleep, it tortures… but it can also inspire. In all its shapes and forms, fear is one hell of an inspirational fuel source. Even the fear of writer’s block can lead to moments of brilliance. That’s because fear is one of the most powerful emotions that can cause us to do superhuman things, make idiot decisions or completely freeze us.

As a writer, I love exploring emotions and human nature and fear is one of those emotions that I’ve noticed fascinates millions of people. Even though we want peace and love, we want to suffer, we want to be afraid, we want the adrenaline that comes with fear and explore our limits to this emotional drug in various forms.

People scream at an amusement park ride, their heart rate spikes and even though it’s at a well established park, even though all the precautions have been taken… you can still die. And we like that.

As a surfer, adrenaline is a big part of the experience because every single time you go surfing, you’re risking your life and health. I’m not the most extreme bodyboarder, yet I have my share of reef tattoos and close calls. I’ve almost drowned twice and have been in serious trouble an extra two times… yet the desire to surf remains. That’s because I know what type of fear I like and make no mistake about it, we all like some type of fear.

It could be the thrill of watching a really scary movie, it could be the emotion of coming close to death from sky diving, it could be reading a particularly gory story or it could even be getting caught in public while getting frisky, the fact remains, fear is fun… most times.

Regarding writer’s block, some people are panicked at the mere notion of this concept… yet it happens often. Probably the fear of this affliction can even help to bring it forth, yet there’s nothing wrong with that fear… actually, it could be a good thing.

One of the most important works of fiction I’ve ever read is Dune by Frank Herbert. Within those wonderful pages is something called the Litany of fear… a mantra of sorts used by the Bene Gesserit women as part of their training to complete physical, mental and emotional control. It reads as follows:

"I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing......Only I will remain."

When you embrace your fear and I mean really embrace it and explore that fear, you will unlock a vast bastion of inspiration that you’ll have a hard time to control… because fear demands to be expressed… it demands attention. So by all means, next time you don’t know what to write about, be afraid… be very afraid and let go of yourself.

Peace, love and maki rolls.

JD