Fear.

Fear is a liar. It’s that simple.

It keeps you bound up and it is so hard to deal with fear. If you are anything like me, I will naturally imagine the worst case scenario in just about any situation. I know this. Therefore, I will be honest and say that I am still learning to fight fear in my life. I hate it.

When I started this blog, I had been tossing it around in my head for about 2 years before I actually took the first step and wrote the very first post. Throughout the two years, sporadically, I thought about possibilities and potential plans for posts that I could write, but for the most part, I didn’t really do anything about it.

Nope. Nada. Nothing.

Outside of a few random ideas and looking up what might be involved in creating a blog, I did nothing.

Why?

I have a negative fear train that runs around in my head.

Yep. FEAR.

Because I let that negative fear train win. FOR YEARS. Yep! I let it win. Why did I let it win for so long?

Well, one thing I have to point out is that in January 2016, (a little over a year after I felt the prompting to do this blog) I got some courage and wrote out a business plan. I had decided I was going to do this blog thing. For real. Do. It.

I wrote a detailed business plan first and printed out some really great printables I found about planning and made myself a nice notebook. The printables were really pretty. ? But then I stopped.

Stopped!

Why?

Yep. You guessed it. That negative fear train came roaring right back into the station. UGH!

• What in the heck was I doing?
• I can’t put myself out there like that. What if people don’t like what I write?
• What if I have too many grammatical errors!!! (Yes, this matters!) Haha!
• What if nobody ever reads anything I put on my website?
• I don’t have anything important to say.

… and the list goes on.

Did I say I let fear stop me?

Yes. Yes. I did.

The bottom line and what ultimately got me back on track was this:

I KNEW God was calling me to write out my story. I knew He would take care of me on this journey. It came down to stepping out in faith and obedience and trusting Him in this process. I had to push “my stuff’ aside and just do it. I was compelled so much, that I could not let it go.

What? Me? Give up control? UGH!

I have a negative fear train that runs around in my head.

Yep. FEAR.

Because I let that negative fear train win. FOR YEARS. Yep! I let it win. Why did I let it win for so long?

Well, one thing I have to point out is that in January 2016, (a little over a year after I felt the prompting to do this blog) I got some courage and wrote out a business plan. I had decided I was going to do this blog thing. For real. Do. It.

I wrote a detailed business plan first and printed out some really great printables I found about planning and made myself a nice notebook. The printables were really pretty. ? But then I stopped.

Stopped!

Why?

Yep. You guessed it. That negative fear train came roaring right back into the station. UGH!

• What in the heck was I doing?
• I can’t put myself out there like that. What if people don’t like what I write?
• What if I have too many grammatical errors!!! (Yes, this matters!) Haha!
• What if nobody ever reads anything I put on my website?
• I don’t have anything important to say.

… and the list goes on.

Did I say I let fear stop me?

Yes. Yes. I did.

The bottom line and what ultimately got me back on track was this:

I KNEW God was calling me to write out my story. I knew He would take care of me on this journey. It came down to stepping out in faith and obedience and trusting Him in this process. I had to push “my stuff’ aside and just do it. I was compelled so much, that I could not let it go.

What? Me? Give up control? UGH!

My Purpose in Blogging

I think part of my hiccup in starting had to do with the way I thought about this blog. As I mentioned, the insecurities flew out of me. But in reality, I believe that the purpose behind doing this blog is actually two-fold. First of all, it’s about helping others through my personal experience, skills, and training. Secondly, this is about my own personal process and what God is teaching me through this experience, as well as being able to look back across my own life experience at lessons learned (and not yet learned too).

Yep. It’s about my process too.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is a reason why I wrote a business plan. So learning how to get you here and reading, is definitely an important part! I guess it involves layers of purpose.

1. Helping others through my personal experience, skills, and training.
2. My experience and process of what God wants me to learn about myself.
3. Contributing to the income of my family.

As of this post, I’m still very new to blogging. This will be the 15th post that I’ve posted, and I just began the 4th month of Sincerely Christi. That’s it. I’m NEW. Still learning.

BUT …

I have learned SO MUCH in these few short months. I have heard it said somewhere before that fear is simply faith that Satan’s plan wins. Soooooo…

Get off that Negative Fear Train!

Here are five strategies to use that will help you deal with fear …

1. Set your expectations. Dealing with fear takes practice. Be consistent. Be active.
2. Acknowledge the fear. Don’t let fear consume you or pretend it does not exist.
3. Understand the actual fear. What is real? Is there a real, true danger or is it imagined or simply expected?
4. Ask yourself what the Word of God says in this situation? If you don’t know, look it up! The Bible has a LOT to say about fear.
5. Go ahead, push fear aside, and just do it. Choose to trust God in your life journey. Take the first step, and then the second, and then the third. You get the picture. Baby steps matter! If the fear train comes back, start over in the process. Yes! It’s a process!!

Just a little something to ponder …

While this post is about how I finally started this blog, the deeper meaning is about learning to get off the fear train and trust God and just do, which is applicable to just about anything in life. The ultimate source for fighting fear is found in having faith in God.

Isaiah 41:13 says

“I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.”

 

That’s the bottom line. One way I have found useful in dealing with my fear is to journal about them.

You can get my journaling sheet to combat fear here!

It’s simple and basic, so you won’t have to use all of your colored printer ink. Haha! Print off as many as you want and USE THEM! As you practice the process of getting off of the fear train, you will be retraining your brain to begin thinking differently so that eventually, your automatic response is faith and NOT fear, unless there is a true danger, of course. If there is a true danger, an automatic fear response is necessary. It’s the way we were created. 🙂

Sincerely, Christi

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