I was told that doing this whole ‘quote of the week’ thing would be a good idea, so here goes…sad that I already missed Week 1 of 2013, but sadly Michael J. Fox hasn’t visited with a time travelling car or floating skateboard.

On new year’s day, I sat looking at my new calendar (Edward Monkton, since my filofax has retired my annual Edward Monkton diary) filling in January’s events and copying out special days that might help with our Guiding programme planning. And then I began thinking about the year ahead and how I wanted to live it.

Last year, I chickened out of  a few things. There was a job with Scottish Gymnastics that I chickened out of applying for because of fear that I wouldn’t get it. Similarly a job at the Commonwealth Games. That was mainly because I didn’t want to live in Glasgow. I didn’t want to surf in front of experienced friends for fear of what they’d think of me. Oh, and fear of the ‘how do you get out of a wetsuit without flashing people in the car park?’  question. Thanks Mr Locksmith for telling me about your pal who likes to go to Belhaven Beach to check out girls in their wetsuits. That really didn’t help.

This year, I want to have courage over fear. I know I’ve managed to have courage over fear. My favourite jobs I’ve ever had – my job as a Youth Advice Worker was done by writing an application and going to an interview totally clueless. Maybe it was because I had nothing to lose I was able to face that fear. I remember my first job after graduation. I had to do a presentation at the interview using Powerpoint about how I’d do the job (no pressure or anything). I had to come off a muddy campsite, go home, change and go to that interview acting all calm and collected. And then go back onto that campsite where there was no phone reception in half of it. I turned down a job as an HR assistant before I’d done the interview for the charity I currently work for. I went off to Australia without booking anywhere to stay past the first day I was there (that is NOT my style). And there was South Africa. Granted, lots of you (my lovely blog friends) gave me A LOT of support with that one. I think you may have tweeted me onto that first plane to London…!

Because the thing is that Donald Miller is right. Fear of not having your needs provided for, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of disappointment, fear of what other people might think of you…just to name but a few, can paralyse us. Without trying we can lead a boring life, and at the end of it we may not have realised our full potential.

In 2013, I want to be careful of the tricks fear plays on me. Already some wonderful opportunities – big and small- have come my way. I’m grabbing them with both hands, because who knows where they could lead?

I do not want to lead a boring life, I want to try everything that I’ve dreamed of doing.

Even the things that I’ve been too scared to add to my bucket list…

What say you LFS readers? Is there anything that you’d like to try that fear is trying to talk you out of?