This is Day 13 of the 21-Day Journaling Challenge held in Nov 2011. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.
Hi everyone – Welcome to Day 13 of 21DJC! :) Yesterday’s question was: “What Are Your Biggest Goals in the Next Few Years?“. (Read the responses.)It was really very exciting reading all your upcoming life goals! I love setting goals, because when we do them, we become architects of our life, envisioning what we want to see in our life, rather than living it based on what we have before us now. Goal setting is the first step towards living a conscious life of our creation. Read more: 7 Important Reasons Why You Should Set GoalsI have a lot of huge things which I’m very, *very* excited to start working on for the upcoming period. One thing is definitely Personal Excellence. Having reached the one million pageviews / month mark a month ago, I’m very excited to hit the next major traffic milestones: such as 2 million pageviews / month, 5 million pageviews, 10 million pageviews, and so on. After 3 years of running the site, I’ve come to realize that all my other business goals are ancillary to this goal, because when I hit a higher traffic, all other things naturally fall into place, be it helping others to grow, hitting revenue targets, receiving new business opportunities, media mentions, and so on.The other thing which I’m very much looking forward is having my talkshow. Long-time readers would know I had a short-lived talkshow 2 years ago, The Celes Show (You can see it at CelesShow.com, though the site has been abandoned for the past 2 years and not updated). I stopped working on it because it took up too much of my time from PE, and I realized it wasn’t the right time for me to launch the show, because the foundations of PE was not laid out at that time (the blog was only 1 year old at that time).But now, I think it’s time for me to consider bringing it back. I won’t be doing it right away now, because there are still other factors of consideration, and also because I still want to work on broadening the reach of PE first before I move into other projects. But it’s fair to say that I’ll look into it with a more serious intent sometime next year (2012).That said, it’s one thing to set big goals and dreams, and another thing to take action to achieve them. Keep in mind what you have written for yesterday’s question, because we are going to get working on them really soon. In our upcoming Live a Better Life in 30 Days next month (Dec), we will be drilling into our life goals with more detail, and creating an action plan to achieve our goals. It’ll be an exciting month, an opportunity to review how 2011 has been for us, and an excellent way to end off the year of 2011 – with a big bang and a huge vision for 2012, which I see as a year of new beginnings. :DWith that said, let’s now move to today’s question!
Hi everyone – Welcome to Day 13 of 21DJC! :) Yesterday’s question was: “What Are Your Biggest Goals in the Next Few Years?“. (Read the responses.)It was really very exciting reading all your upcoming life goals! I love setting goals, because when we do them, we become architects of our life, envisioning what we want to see in our life, rather than living it based on what we have before us now. Goal setting is the first step towards living a conscious life of our creation. Read more: 7 Important Reasons Why You Should Set GoalsI have a lot of huge things which I’m very, *very* excited to start working on for the upcoming period. One thing is definitely Personal Excellence. Having reached the one million pageviews / month mark a month ago, I’m very excited to hit the next major traffic milestones: such as 2 million pageviews / month, 5 million pageviews, 10 million pageviews, and so on. After 3 years of running the site, I’ve come to realize that all my other business goals are ancillary to this goal, because when I hit a higher traffic, all other things naturally fall into place, be it helping others to grow, hitting revenue targets, receiving new business opportunities, media mentions, and so on.The other thing which I’m very much looking forward is having my talkshow. Long-time readers would know I had a short-lived talkshow 2 years ago, The Celes Show (You can see it at CelesShow.com, though the site has been abandoned for the past 2 years and not updated). I stopped working on it because it took up too much of my time from PE, and I realized it wasn’t the right time for me to launch the show, because the foundations of PE was not laid out at that time (the blog was only 1 year old at that time).But now, I think it’s time for me to consider bringing it back. I won’t be doing it right away now, because there are still other factors of consideration, and also because I still want to work on broadening the reach of PE first before I move into other projects. But it’s fair to say that I’ll look into it with a more serious intent sometime next year (2012).That said, it’s one thing to set big goals and dreams, and another thing to take action to achieve them. Keep in mind what you have written for yesterday’s question, because we are going to get working on them really soon. In our upcoming Live a Better Life in 30 Days next month (Dec), we will be drilling into our life goals with more detail, and creating an action plan to achieve our goals. It’ll be an exciting month, an opportunity to review how 2011 has been for us, and an excellent way to end off the year of 2011 – with a big bang and a huge vision for 2012, which I see as a year of new beginnings. :DWith that said, let’s now move to today’s question!21DJC Day 13
Today’s question is deviates from the 12 questions so far:What Do You Fear Most?
Your Task Today:
- Reflect and answer today’s question. There’s no word limit – whether minimum or maximum. Write as few or as many words as you want. It’s all up to what you want to express!
- Share your answer. After you are done writing, copy and paste your answer in the comments area and post it there.
- Check out other participants’ answers. Other participants will be sharing their answers too, so feel free to read and reply to their answers. This is a group course, so let’s support each other in these 21 days.
Look forward to reading your answers! :D
((Images: Empty book for journaling, Fearful girl))
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What do I fear the most?
This is a bit of a tough question, and there may be a few a few different answers.
If I perceive that fear as being the worst thing that could ever happen to me, it would be the fear of being brutally tortured, or murdered, having to die a slow and painful death. But that’s not something I would ever think about! So it’s not a fear that affects how I go about my everyday life, or prevents me from doing anything I need to be doing.
Now if I were to think of my worst fear that I do actually think about. Well, I’m happy to say that currently I don’t have any significant fear that is concerns in any real way. Petty fears such as the thought of our house being broken into and all my gear being stolen including the computers with hard drives filled with all my creative work aren’t that much of a fear at all. But something good to think about as a reminder to back up all that work.
Currently, my biggest fear would probably be that my eye sight might just be beginning to fail me. My left eye is fine, but I’ve just noticed recently that looking at anything far in the distance through my right eye can become a bit blurry. Although I’ve had a lazy right eye for years, so I don’t know if it’s always been like that? As a result, I’ve started doing a few eye exercises which I hope will help. To be honest, I’m not afraid of wearing glasses and have a lot of friends who do, but still, this is the biggest fear in my life at the moment.
I can relate to the fear of vision loss, because I’ve been wearing glasses/contacts for about half my life now. From my experience, I would recommend getting your eyes checked as soon as you can if you start to really notice it. Life is to short to miss beautiful things because of blurry vision. :)
Thanks Laurel. Normally my eyesight is fine. It’s only when I close my left I can see that things in the distance look slightly blurry. Apparantly cooking oil can affect eyesight, so that’s something I’ll need to avoid as much as I can.
Lots of things scare me, I’m not a brave person .. but would like to be !
How do we know what we fear the most? Do we know if we fear something by how much we avoid mentioning it or just thinking about it?
The thing that I can’t think about, is losing the people I care about. I’m on purpose saying this in a general way & not very detailed because I’m afraid it will manifst in real life if I talk about it. :rolleyes:
What I fear is also the future. I don’t look forward to it. It’s like my life is an ocean and the future is the fogginess in the distance. Sure some good things could be hiding in the fog but the idea of the “unknown” is not very pleasant at the moment.
And last but not least, I have the fear of betraying myself. Too often I struggle with doing what is best, and too often the struggle doesn’t end in a win. I must give more attention to my thoughts, actions & habits and continuously make the effort to improve them.
To end this answer in a lighter way, I have to say that I’m also afraid of the dark & of creepy creatures popping up while watching videos recommended by friends :!:
What I fear most is that I stop growing, sometimes logic kicks in and thought like “Ok, I’ve walk the path and walk the talk, so what, I haven’t got what I wanted”, these kind of thought sometimes tempt me to stop growing, “why waste the time”.
Then I have to contemplate and review my purpose, what growing will do and what good things have been achieved so far.
What I fear the most is losing the people I love. I know in my head that nothing lasts forever. I’ve had losses before, just as I know there will be ones I love that I haven’t met yet, maybe haven’t even been born yet. But the thought of losing the ones I have now still chills me on the inside. It’s the thing that makes it hard to think about the long term future. Whenever I feel this way, I try to respond by making time to spend with my loved ones, because when the time comes to let go I want to have more wonderful memories than I can imagine. I also try to make it a point to not hold grudges, because I want to make every possible moment a happy one :’)
I actually thought of this too, although it’s not something that I think about very often.
But you’re definitely right about keeping contact with people and not holding grudges. It would be difficult to lose someone that you adn’t kept in contact with over something silly.
Fear of nothingness in my life – that at the end of my life, everything that I’ve done just amounts to nothingness, that I’ve lived my life in vain.
+ Bonus Fear: of being too old & all alone & not remembering anything or anyone at all – in which case, the 1st fear would be invalid since I can’t remember what I’ve done.
1. I fear God (but I know He loves me).
2. I fear what the future holds for my children. An overcrowded planet, a messed up economy, moral problems….
3. I fear health problems. Don’t have them, don’t want them.
4. I fear the mess the economy is creating.
5. I don’t really fear that much, mostly I worry.
I am very inspired and in awe with your outlook. I wish I had your faith.
Thank you for your kind comment. Faith is a gift.
My kneejerk reaction is “dying old and alone”. But that is actually not the truth. My biggest fear is not having enough. And (sadly) not having the “right” things. And perhaps, not living up to everyone elses expectations (real and imaginary) of me. Today, I am learning that I really live with a lot of fear. Certainly that is not healthy, or at least not an optimal situation. But I cannot move my life past these fears until I am able to face them. And the first step for me to face my fears is to acknowledge that they exist. I can picture a therapist saying “embrace your fears, and own them” in that goofy voice I always give therapists in my head (although they never seem to have that voice in real life). And I have to admit that they are right. These fears are with me every day. If I choose to sweep them under the rug, and pretend that they don’t exist…well, the only person I am fooling is myself. And if I am choosing to live authentically (and I like to at least aspire to that), I need to stop that particular foolhardiness.
what do I fear most?
– my GOD – I believe in life after death
– road accident. I was involved in one 1985, where I have to be operated for 3 hours. Now everytime there is a road accident, my heart beats so fast and I will cry uncontrollably and I have to stop my car and park on the hardshoulder until I calm down
– letting down those that i love
– not able to fullfill my promises (no matter how small and to whom I made that promise)
– being late
– being sick (especially tooth-ache!!!)
– snakes
At one time, I feared losing my parents. I have lost them both, but yet, I’m still here, so that is one fear that is now gone.
I do fear losing my husband, because we are so very close…I honestly don’t know if I would want to live without him and that is another fear.
I fear being old and alone.
On a less profound note, I also fear the dark to a great extent and wood ticks!
I fear losing loved ones as well. I just attended a funeral earlier this week, and it was a close family member (my husband’s grandmother), so seeing it actually happen for the first time has really hit home. I fear losing my husband most of all, of being at that moment where one of has to go and one has to stay behind.
I also fear waking up one day, much older, and thinking I have done nothing in my life. I know this isn’t true, I have done my best so far and always try to set goals for the future, but the thought still scares me.
We are all afraid of losing loved ones, yet we don’t take more effort in spending the time to be with them when we have the chance.
Fear. I think I definitely have a lot of it but I’m trying to work on overcoming this fear. I think I am most afraid of death. I am also afraid of losing loved ones (like a lot of people here) and I am afraid of not quite fulfilling my achievements or expectations. I am afraid of insects and I’m also afraid of public speaking. I’m afraid to be myself at times. I’d like to be able to overcome these fears.
I fear not living up to my potential. A life half-lived.
Ironically, like many people, I also fear throwing my full self into things.
That dichotomy and its interplay is what I fear most in a systemic sense.
I fear failure the most. I feel it’s not ok to fail. Failure is permanent, irreversible and marks you for life. While I know intellectually those things are not true, I still have those feelings. It’s probably why I start so many projects but actually finish very few. It’s probably why I have an insatiable appetite for learning, information, knowledge because I want to be sure that whatever I do is done the very best way possible. I wish I could be more willing to risk failure by acting sooner and more boldly and feed my voracious appetite for learning through lessons offered by failure and live experience rather than hanging back and feeling like I’m not quite fully prepared to act just yet.
Failure is all in the definition.
You can’t be paralyzed into not trying things because you know it won’t work. Mistakes are a part of life and you only attain failure if you don’t pick yourself up to try again.
One could also say that not by trying things because you are afraid of failure, that in itself is possibly a failure to learn.
Hmmm… there are lots of things that scare me- spiders, roaches, rats, birds that flap too close to my face, big dogs that yap at my heels on my long walks along the coast… the list seems endless. But these I suppose are trivial. (or irrelevant esp. when big, strong hubby is around to SAVE me! :love: ). My mom predicts having a kid definitely puts an end to this… protective maternal instincts apparently take over when we see these fears mirrored in our tiny tots. She calls it the “no-one-scares-my-my-baby!” attitude. :mrgreen:
But i am digressing… honestly, there are some fears that i have:
1. Death of a loved one.
2. Dying from a long and painful disease.
I’m sure I, of all people should not feel this, since i have grandparents who are living a long, active, healthy and jolly lifestyle. And an aunt who battled painful cancer with such grace, dignity and fortitude that she has left a lasting and touching impression on every person she knew. Feel guilty just for having these fears… :( , but can’t help myself… so instead, i take a deep breath and remind myself of the wonderful life i DO have and the countless blessings God has showered upon me.
The most fear in myself is public speaking. I always lost of message when I become on stage because of eyes. I find that this fear is come from myself unbelieve myself and do not have confident. Most importantly, poor preparation. Lenyt
Hi Leny,
Some tips build up your skills
– Start a bank of sayings favourite quotes, sayings, thoughts
– Read as much as you can this will give you new ideas, thoughts, inspiration
– Prepare by listening or recording yourself
– Practice, practice, practice
Good luck its not always easy. Prepare like Churchill with “impromptu remarks” on daily, national and international events.
Bob
I’ve been having trouble reaching this site — occasionally my Safari, or maybe it’s my provider, lets me down. I get the emails but haven’t been able to read comments or to post any myself. Until tonight.
I think I share most of the fears mentioned here already. Mostly, I don’t think about them; occasionally I use what I call preventive worrying and do something about the thing I’m worried about so that it doesn’t happen.
I’m afraid of the unexpected. Often — usually — the unexpected things, the surprises, are nice ones, but the really bad things that have happened are things that I did not expect and was not prepared for. So when anything unexpected happens, my first reaction is dismay and wariness, though that usually fades quickly when I see that there is no threat or problem.
The thing I fear the most is that I don’t get a chance to fulfil my goals, live a meaningful life, or make a contribution to this world.
My greatest fears are still ironically hindered by fear on a more daily basis, fear causes paralysis of doing things, not being able to live life fully. There lies the battle of how and if the overall fear of the long term effects are strong enough to drive me to conquer my fears on the day-to-day scale.
I have made strides in conquering some of those fears, but it is still a climb running into every obstacle. My philosophy is based on the quote (that I’m not sure who said) of “If you’re not living, you’re dying”. Merely being alive is just surviving, and not everyone who’s alive truly lives, and just exist.
I believe we all need to strive and venture to live. To have meaningful lives, to live in the moment and be fulfilled in who we are as people and what we do.
They ask me what i fear the most
What is it that makes me shudder
Is it lack of money some day
Will someone blow my cover
Am i afraid of the dark they ask
Does the boogie man scare me to death
Do high buildings and looking down
Make me think of my grave and wreath
Am i afraid of dying
Of being in a cold dark grave
Scared of having bad kids
Those who do not behave
Does lonliness scare me
Of being old, and decrepid and a lone
Of being broke, and loosing resources
Not even having a home
Am i scared of fires
Of heat, or cold or loosing my eye sight
Homeless on the street, unable to care for myself
People watching over my plight
How about if my friends renounce me
If my family no longer calls me its own
I’d look around myself and find no body
In lonliness i would have grown
All of these actually scare me
but none of them are my greatest fears
My achillies heel, is feeling unloved
That one just brings me to tears
I fear that i may not have an honest heart
Open and brave to face this life
That my heart might be filled with malice and greed
That for holiness it does not strive
I am afraid of the day when pride fills my soul
when i no longer feel the guilt of sin
Hopelesness will fill my future
My and all my kind
I am afraid of becoming a jerk
A racist, a hater and a loud mouthed fool
Most of all i am afraid
Of becoming this evil worlds tool
Nice. Is it your or are you quoting someone?
It is an original :)….An original from Taffi :)
good job Taffy!
Fear of rejection
Fear of not being to able to achieve my dream
Fear of losing
My fear? It’s quite hard to answer this – I’m not really sure what I’m afraid of.
In real life, it’ll be insects. But personal development related…sigh. I guess it’ll be the fear of not living up to my full potential.
My full potential means that I’m living the ‘as best as possible’ life. Some times I call it ‘The perfect life in your means’.
That’s why I’m always working on being my best self since young. But I still don’t know why I’m afraid of that even though I’m tackling that fear…
But I still don’t know why I’m afraid of that even though I’m tackling that fear…
Probably because we know we are not perfect and we make mistakes.
But in my opinion, asking ourself if we are doing the best we can and being aware that we can do better are the two first necessary steps to really live our life at full potential.
Hope it’s clear :D
I have several fears:
* Not living to my highest potential.
* Too little time to do the things that I want to do — too little, too late!
* Growing old and having to depend on others physically and financially.
* To come to the end of my life and realize that I have done nothing of any significance.
That I am not living to my highest potential is the one that I fear the most. :( I think the rest can take care of themselves if I can conquer that first one.
I have lived my young life without goals, with no vision of my future and just going with the flow, as they say. How very wrong I was. When you leave for things to be done until you are much older, you will have a shorter time span to play catch-up. I know I always say that your age is just a number but when one gets older your options are limited. How awesome if I had realized all these when I was much younger.
I really admire you, Celeste, you are living to your highest potential and you are still so young yet! :clap:
Not making a difference. Wasting my time here on Earth.
My biggest fear is death because of the thoughts that how unpredictable death is and how there would be no life after dying. It would be an end of my life, my family, my friends and everything else that matters to me. There are so many dreams and goals I want to achieve, and unexpected death could be the cause of not fulfilling/achieving them.
I want to live, see and experience different stages of life, and die at an old age.
I understand that death is never expected (well, unless you’re old), but I think that’s more the reason that we should be in the moment and living every moment as if it were our last, because at the end of the day, if we don’t, we’ll just keep pushing things off until tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow….
Iva, we should only be afraid that we don’t at least try. Even if we don’t achieve it all, the small act of trying is as good as having done it.
What I fear the most is to die alone.
Abandoned.
While I believe in the motto “We live together and die alone”, dying alone then would be a direct consequence of too much living alone. In other words, being Lost.
Going deeper, it feels not realize my potential. Not accomplish the mission I had to in my life.
It means I am afraid to die with self unforgiven regrets.
While I need to accept physiological failures and mistakes, I feel the line between what you could have done better and what you simply could have done and you didn’t is sometimes too thin.
Oh, where to start? It’s weird, because a few years ago, I thought I wasn’t afraid of anything. I’d been through what most people would consider the worst- lost my health, my job, my spouse, my home- and was still okay. Well, sort of okay.
Today, I have a better understanding of my fears. I’ve lost quite a few loved ones, including a husband, and it doesn’t make facing the loss of anyone else any easier. My parents are older and my dad is in poor health. I can’t imagine life without them. The thought of something bad happening to a niece or nephew nearly paralyzes me. I’m about to re-marry, and the thought that I might be widowed again is terrifying.
Every now and then I see someone who has lost their whole family and I almost can’t breathe thinking of what that would be like. Fortunately, I don’t torture myself with these thoughts too often.
On top of that, I seem to be afraid of both success AND failure. That’s a pretty pickle. For the last several weeks, I’ve had an awful time getting anything done because any possible outcome- whether or not it’s favorable is just about equally scary. I used to think that people who feared success were nuts, but now that I can see how to get there, I’m afraid of it. I see a few people around me who’ve had great success, and rather than a dream come true, it just turns into more stress and problems. I realize it doesn’t have to be that way, but it still bothers me.
In spite of all that, I’m in a pretty good mood today. I realized that part of my slump of the last week or so was due to a stomach bug that really lingered but is finally gone. In the back of my mind was the fear that a health problem I thought I’d conquered years ago had come back. It’s amazing how much brighter the world looks when you’re feeling good!
What are you living in fear of? What are you most afraid to see happen? And why?
Since I block out my emotions of fear, I guess I don’t know what I fear most. Maybe I am afraid of myself. I don’t know. I don’t listen to my instincts most of the times, I block out my emotions, I can’t accept myself fully, etc. I look pretty numb most of the times. Even in times when a family member is faced with deadly problems, I am calm and tend to deal with the problem calmly and help them out. I sometimes wonder why I don’t listen to my emotions. I think I am afraid of myself because, maybe, myself is a vulnerable creature. And I am afraid of that vulnerability because I am afraid someone might take advantage of me because of that. I remember when I was a child, I would fake in order to fit in.So it’s either myself or there is something I am more afraid of but don’t know because I block out emotions of fear a lot. I might be wrong in this answer though because I don’t think I have very much self-knowledge.
What I fear the most is when my “time” had come that God is calling me to be judged by Him whether I had done what God asked me to do in this earth, to my brothers and sisters, as well as to myself…and in conclusion, I had disappointed God…and I will be asked to stay for a while (and the length depends on the “sentence” He will give me as part of my repentance and the more living people will pray for my salvation, the sooner I get release from this place) in the Purgatory (a place to cleanse and prepare myself to return to God, in His eternal place with all the angels and saints). That is why it is best to “love and do good thy neighbours as unto yourself”. Thanks to Personal Excellence as this is one of the great steps to prepare ourselves to God. Take care and God bless.
Not being able to generate an reasonable income.
I think of expenses I need…health care, housing, clothing, automobile and gas, computer, etc. and the difficult economy and I worry about what would happen if I needed to find a new job. This is related to my previous post about goals for the next few years. My main goal is to develop a new career, which will alleviate some ot that fear.
The thing that i fear most is the fear of failure………failing to achieve the goals i have set for myself, failing to conceive the fruits of my hard work, failing to create the virtual world i see in my meditations in my real life…….
But if there wasn’t the fear of failure, then i would really have the drive behind working for my goals as not getting to what i want to be wouldn’t be as much of a big deal…….hmnnnnnnnn
Sorry i meant to say that
But if there wasn’t the fear of failure, then i wouldn’t really have the drive behind working for my goals as not getting to what i want to be wouldn’t be as much of a big deal…….hmnnnnnnnn
I’m afraid of well for starters, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. you never know what that bump in the middle of the night is. Plus after hearing about Bloody Mary and reading a very gory and somewhat adult version of Alice in Wonderland I rarely look in the mirror when i go to the bathroom.
now onto the serious stuff. I am afraid of failure but i know that is really stupid considering how important failure is to success. Plus it wets the appetite for success, but just that feeling of a that stone in your stomach is just awful. I’d rather avoid it if I can.
I am also afraid of losing my loved ones. I know that we have a limited time on this earth but i’m afraid of what my life would be like without them.
I also am afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone. i try to expand myself but stepping into the unknown it can be pretty intimidating. Though I learned in class that its not the unknown we are afraid of its the known, knowing that what we are familiar is not enough compared to what we learn in the new experience or how my teacher explained, incorporating the old knowledge into the new knowledge. i realize that is important
i also don’t really like confrontation. it is very overwhelming when caught in a fight or drama and i try to avoid when that happens but sometimes you just can’t get away from it, especially when it involves you. i don’t know if that counts as something i’m afraid of but i don’t exactly like it either.
i also am afraid of letting people down. i want to live up to people expectations and while i know i’m only human i feel like i can’t do everything and that makes things more complicated so i try to be a people pleaser but i know that isn’t good either.
i’m not really fond of heights because i imagine if i slip and fall i could get serously hurt or something might happen and imagining how it would feel does scare me
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