If You Are Terrified to Be Seen
"I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me. I know some people are terrified of the bomb. But then some people are terrified to be seen carrying a MODERN SCREEN magazine. Experience teaches us that silence terrifies people the most." -Bob Dylan
Terrified of being seen carrying a MODERN SCREEN magazine is a terror I can identify with. I used to carry all sorts of things that I thought would give me a clue to the rich and famous, believing, erroneously, that they had some secret to living.
I wanted to live larger.
And, actually, there was always a secret. It wasn't in the stars.
It was this: Practice a little more deliberately and creatively and extensively than others do. That was always the secret. But I carried PEOPLE magazine around and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and so many others to try to find out how to live larger, play bigger, on a bigger stage.
Most people I meet have this same yearning inside. This nagging feeling that they are playing life WAY TOO SAFE!
But what if you saw me with these magazines? Or, worse, with a self help book! What would you think of me? And that was the terror. Afraid of what other people think. Nto knowing what people who are admired and respected most in the world, and down through history, figured out long ago that it didn't matter at all... it didn't matter at all what people thought. Just do your fearless practice and create... and create and create.
A FOOLISH FEARLESS PROJECT BEGINS!
"Start a huge, foolish project like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you." -Rumi
The whirling dervish poet Rumi is onto something here. I put his quote in a recent book I wrote about living a fearless life.
So what's my foolish project? A mastermind group open to the whole world to join. With a billion members in it. From all over the world. Club Fearless. All in this moment.
Some people, upon hearing of my foolish project, have said (rather loudly), "That's impossible!"
Perfect. Then I am on the right path.
Formula for doing the impossible: creativity and courage! From my experience with myself and my clients and family we are either creating or we are not creating. Either or. One or the other. No messing with mister in-between. Mister in-between is the devil himself.
Is it possible to live a fearless life?
Let me answer that difficult question this way: It is possible to be fearless in this moment. In this moment right now. Even as you are reading. Even for me right now as I am writing this.
And this moment is your life. Your life is now.
But we complicate it. We pull a chain of links of worry from our worried minds and throw that chain out into the imaginary dreamed-up screwed-up frightening FUTURE! We imagine that's our life. Terrorism, socialism, bankruptcy, divorce, suicide and our favorite show being cancelled.
The future, when projected from the chained up, worried mind, is fear itself. But when we CREATE and SERVE people by being in ACTION in this present moment, no future is necessary for peace and happiness.
what happens when I am not creating? I am reacting. When I react (emotionally, all reactions become emotional, and not in a pleasant way)... when I react I offer up all my precious God-given power to others. I let them intimidate me. I am no longer creative because I am no longer creating the life I want, the love I want.
"We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love." -Tom Robbins
Whatever happens during my day I always have two choices: 1) I can react emotionally to what happens, or 2) I can ask myself, WHAT DO I WANT TO CREATE?
I might get a nasty email. I get those now and then. I am tempted to react with anger and send something even nastier back. (It's war! I must win!)
Or I can create. I can create the relationship I want to have with this person given what I am up to in life.
Ask yourself this; What, exactly, am I up to? This gets thrilling, when practiced, because when you have a purpose, an impossible wonderful dream (A billion members? Are you kidding me?) it is then possible NOT TO REACT but, instead, to create. So I create a response to the nasty email. That has me love the sender of that email. And have him be a member of my most beloved club. My heart begins to melt. I read this email again. Oh by gosh, I agree with him? Oh my goodness, he's right? I tell him so.
So many of you have thanked me for recommending MAN ON WIRE, the movie about fearless creativity and what life can be when one laughs at death. Laughs in the face of death. And creates art instead of indulging fear and playing life safe. Please, see it if you haven't. God grant me the courage.
"Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear." -Cheri Huber
I have always enjoyed and admired Cheri Huber, her writings and profoundly insightful, fearless and peaceful books. One of her many wonderful observations is this: "Egocentricity is that constant concern with how I feel, what I think, what I'm doing, what I want - looking at what is and seeing it as inadequate."
Cher Huber also says, "It does no good to search frantically for peace, to seek anxiously after love, joy or freedom. If you want joy, be joyful. If you want peace, be peaceful."
Light in every word. And this is where we are headed when we are fearless in this moment.
Steve Chandler, author of Reinventing Yourself
www.stevechandler.com
Copyright 2009. All Rights Reserved.
