Phone

There are a few things I am afraid of. Bears, obviously. Mismatched queso and chip portions where you end up with queso left but no chips. (I just got a little sweaty, even typing that sentence.)

But some of my fears are more serious than that, and sometimes that includes writing.

How can something I feel called to do, something I love, something that is my passion, have fear associated with it?

I think it’s because on some level, we’re terrified of the thing that matters most to us. If we didn’t care about it, we wouldn’t be afraid of it. But if we’re able to experience big joy doing something we’ll also be able to experience big fear associated with it. That’s why most people have huge “what if” dreams but never do anything with them.

And so, I often avoid writing. And you avoid whatever your thing is too. But fear not, I developed a very simple iPhone (or Android) trick to beat fear. It’s the simplest thing on the planet, I promise.

Here’s what you do:
1. Open the clock on your smartphone.
2. Choose timer.
3. Pick 1 hour.
4. Hit start.
5. Do your thing until the timer sounds.

That’s it. Sound too simple to work?

Try it first.

Part of our fear is that we think we have to do everything all at once. We’re afraid of the size of the dream or the magnitude of the mission. We think we have to accomplish everything in one sitting. The enormity of that expectation paralyzes us. I can’t write an entire book in one afternoon. But I can do just about anything for 60 minutes. That’s not too scary. I can handle that.

And what often happens is that by the time the alarm goes off I’m in the flow and have a little momentum. I can steal another 30 minutes from fear.

How have I written 5 books in 5 years? How did I finish my new book Do Over, which clocks in at 70,000 words, making it the longest book I’ve ever written? In 60 minute segments.

That’s how.

Give your dream an hour sometime this week and in the process, give your fear a black eye!

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Question:
What’s a trick you use to beat fear in order to do the work you feel called to do?