Michael does life: Fear

michaeldoeslife:

Chapter Eighteen - An Inciting Incident

Perhaps one of the reasons I’ve avoided having a clear ambition is because the second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose. It’s always been this way.

My friend Mike knows an ugly guy who dates beautiful women. He dates them for a while then moves on to other beautiful women. Mike looked at me and asked, “You know how he does it?” Mike said the way the guy did it is he didn’t care whether he got rejected. He said only about one out of ten girls actually went out with the guy.

I don’t want to date a bunch of beautiful women, because the pretty ones can be annoying. They stamp their feet and clench their firsts because they can’t have whatever the equivalent of a pony happens to be. But I do think there was something to what Mike was saying that the great stories go to those who don’t give in to fear.

The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is “Do not fear.” It’s in there over two hundred times. That means a couple of things, if you think about it. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn’t let fear boss us around. Before I realized we were supposed to fight fear, I thought of fear as a subtle suggestion in our subconcious designed to keep us safe, or more important, keep us from getting humiliated. And I guess it serves that purpose. But fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.

…

Wow. This hits home so hard. Thank you. 

67 notes

  1. tomkeepstrying said: Thank you. This is exactly what I needed to read right now. Exactly.
  2. nixthenegativity said: This really hits home for me right now, I’m in a similar place. Thanks for the inspiration.
  3. jrfred said: this is one of the best posts that I have read in awhile. I think that sometime with all of the training we forget that we like running. a mile w/no tracking actually sounds amazing. I hope it was the start of a return to the fun of running for you
  4. sisterabe reblogged this from michaeldoeslife and added:
    hard. Thank you.
  5. westcoastrunner said: Way to stick to it and figure it out Michael!! You will re-bound — its just baby steps!
  6. melanieisdoinglife said: I really don’t know what to say about this post, so I’ll just say its wonderful. I noticed that you were awfully quiet. I’m glad you had a good, fun run.
  7. robindoesrunning said: I’m so proud of you.
  8. runlong said: Great post!
  9. robownslife said: The ruts suck but I think they are important. They make us realize what we’ve been doing and why we are here. You’ll get back into it. You’ve made a lot of strides and the greatest ones are coming. So hang in there!
  10. nowforthefunpart said: One of the best posts I have read in a long time (and I’ve read a lot of good posts). It certainly gave voice to how I’ve been feeling recently about certain aspects of my life. Thanks for taking the chance and putting it out there.
  11. thereluctantrunner said: Don’t give it up!! Do what you can..when you can. You have come too far to go back.
  12. kirstdoeslife said: Way to go! I have found, in the past, that a couple days of not running can easily turn into a couple weeks. Then, the fear kicks in. I know the next run will be hard, and painful, and slow. The fear keeps me from running. Eventually I too have to convince myself that I am…
  13. uh-oh-janellio said: <3 THIS. I completely understand this!
  14. fat-to-fast said: You are awesome. Sometimes we forget why we do what we’re doing. Sometimes it sucks. But you pulled through, and got better.
  15. victoriafindslife said: I needed to read this tonight. THANK YOU for putting it out there! You did the right thing by just starting. We all have to have a start somewhere!
  16. shortmom said: I’ve had a shitty week or so, too. But you know you always feel better after you get out there and do it, and this cloud starts to slough off like so much dead skin.
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