I’m thinking, “What the hell are you doing, Matt! What have you done to your life? Why are you doing this?” As I walk to my new bartending job, I’m feeling scared. I know this feeling.
When I was a teenager – maybe 17 years old, I was nervous when dropping off my job application at a bakery and cake supply shop. When they called me for an interview, nerves turned into anxiety. Driving to the interview, I was scared. By the time I’d parked my green Ford truck near the bakery, I was sweating buckets. Fear had turned into a full-blown panic attack.
I couldn’t will myself to get out from behind the steering wheel to go in. I turned the key, started my truck, and drove away. Maybe that’s the day I turned away from the path that would have led to a culinary and hospitality career.
Thirty-six years later, I keep walking on my path to becoming a craft cocktail bartender because creativity means taking my fear with me.
Hit Reply, Do did you turn away from a calling? Do you recall the day or a story about turning away? Share it with me if you will.
Recently, I relistened to an NPR TED Radio show that examined the mysteries surrounding creativity. I’m fascinated by creativity. I believe that it is integral to each of us as we seek to answer our calling. The Source of Creativity features TED Talks and interviews with:
- Sting: How Do You Get Over Writer’s Block?
- Charles Limb: What Does a Creative Brain Look Like?
- Sir Ken Robinson: How Do Schools Kill Creativity?
- Elizabeth Gilbert: Where Does Creativity Come From?
Don’t Leave Fear Behind
If you are answering your call, you probably feel fear at times. You might be trying to get over your fear, or telling yourself there is nothing to fear.
I’ve discovered the best we can do is take our fear with us. If we are growing, changing, and pushing our boundaries and taking creative risks, then we’re going to be afraid.
Afraid of failure, success, ridicule, and more.
Like our shadows and the Resistance, fear unacknowledged grows stronger. I’m committed to my path. So now, I’m determined to keep inviting fear along for the ride.
I hope your holidays were full of joy and that 2020 is a year of answering your calling.
Matt
