Reading · Richard Bernabe's Beyond The Lens

Fear is boring.

There. I said it. Boring.

Fear at its core is an ancient risk-assessment mechanism. It evolved many thousands of years ago to keep you alive in environments where any wrong move, any miscalculation, meant becoming lunch for something else, probably a stronger, faster animal with more impressive teeth.

Fear is extraordinarily good at its original job: keeping you alive.

The problem is that your nervous system, that impulse from the part of your brain where fear originates, the amygdala, can’t distinguish between a genuinely life-threatening situation and the mere vulnerability of sharing a new idea with the world. To your nervous system, both can register the same way. To modern humans, most of what fear has to offer is outdated and unnecessary.

To photographers, artists, writers, and all creators, fear is also what holds most of us back from reaching our full creative potential. “Creativity takes courage,” said French artist Henri Matisse, but fear loudly stands at the door stopping us from summoning that courage to reach beyond our comfort zone: embarrassment, failure, rejection, vulnerability, potentially await.

But why is it also boring?

Fear is boring because it always says the same thing. It always offers the same answer.

Stop.

Always STOP.

It never has a new argument. It never offers any new ideas or creative counter-proposals. It never suggests a better, less dangerous route.

It just yells STOP.

Elizabeth Gilbert circles this idea in Big Magic. She describes fear as the most predictable thing in the world. Utterly unoriginal. And once you sit with that, you begin to understand that you have so much more power over your creative work than it does.

So how do we manage our relationship with fear while still doing creative work? Do we avoid it? Try to defeat it? Acquiesce and allow it to have its way?

Might I suggest you have a listen to my latest podcast episode where I talk specifically about the book, Big Magic and fear? It might be the best 36-minute investment in your creative work you’ll ever make!

Episode 121. Books That Matter: Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic’ — Recalibrating Your Relationship with Fear & Living a Bolder, More Creative Life (link to Apple Podcasts)

You can also listen on Spotify or the Beyond The Lens website.