During one of my seminary classes years ago, one of my profs said, “If you’re afraid to fail, you’ll never succeed at anything.” I can’t tell you what that actual lecture entailed, but that statement continues to rent space in my mind today. He further explained how successful people spend their lives going from one failure to the next, sort of like a set of rolling hills. Each hilltop represents success and each valley represents failure.

I almost never started writing here due to fear of failure. What if no one reads it? What if I sound stupid? What if people see it as a waste of time? Then I thought maybe I can encourage just one person with my ramblings, which made me smile. That was enough for me.

Recently, I restarted my health journey. I’ve jumped in and out of my health bandwagon many times over the years, but something about moving into my forties puts my desire for a healthy lifestyle in overdrive.

My well woman exam this year resulted in a message on my online patient portal saying, “You are at increased risk of developing diabetes.” I stared at my phone screen for a long time and pored over all the results of my blood work.

Over the past six weeks or so, I’ve increased my physical activity, intake of nutritionally-dense foods (Hello, fiber!), and hydration. I have a recurring reminder on my calendar to weigh-in every Tuesday morning.

During one of my morning walks, I got the idea to share my journey on YouTube, in hopes to help someone else on his or her journey. I thought it could also serve as an accountability tool to help me stick to my goals.

But of course, the same fearful thoughts I had before with writing resurfaced. The fear seemed worse due to the thought of recording myself and posting it online for anyone to see. Did I really want to exhibit that much vulnerability?

Yes. Instead of allowing fear to truncate an opportunity to encourage others and myself, I went ahead and clicked “start channel.”

What thing is fear trying to stop you from starting?

EKG