Pg 19 of Dune
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.
Brilliant! Dare I even say, divinely inspired. This quote popped into my head today as I read a number of websites discussing writers, books and the industry as a whole being saturated with tons of books written by indie publishers. The sites would caution writers to not be so optimistic, to be realistic instead. More than likely, you will fail or not achieve much success. Ugh. Oh why do I do this to myself?! So much negativity out there (as well as good information, so don't avoid it!) I have to constantly remind myself that I am not them. I can succeed. I WILL succeed. If I allow myself to expect failure, it's failure I will receive. If I shoot for what they believe I should seek, only modest success, that's all I will achieve. Whatever success I obtain will be only what I believe to be modest. My heart doesn't want that, because it'll be the fear of reaching and falling short that will hold me back. Fear of having my heart broken.
Fear is the mind killer.
Of course being unreasonably confident is also a problem. Being unable to receive criticism is just as bad as receiving too much of it. Fear on the other hand can completely wreck creativity as it has wrecked many unachieved dreams.
I often write the following statement – A man without fear is a fool, a man that succumbs to his fear is a coward but a brave man acknowledges his fear and presses on.
I have no idea where I got that from. I must have read it somewhere (so I apologize to whomever I ripped it from), but I love it and use it often. It’s okay to be afraid, but it’s not okay to be paralyzed by it. I can’t allow the fears of others to keep me from actualizing my goals.
Press onward even in the face of fear.
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