Creative Courage: Moving Forward through Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
“Perhaps the hero’s journey is not for a few brave people after all but is an invitation to me, to us all, to rally our courage and do the thing we’re meant to do.”
– Jessica Honegger, Imperfect Courage
I’m going through a big transition from a “full-time job” to a life of a few income-producing clients, focusing on growing seedbop.com and making lots more art. I am moving toward what I always wanted to do at the ripe young age of 67. My body has decided to react to all this by unleashing blocked childhood emotions, pelting me like demons.
When we decide to pursue our dreams with committed intentions, the emotional backlash can take us by surprise and attempt to drown any hopes of living the life we were meant to live. My previous blog post, #43 When the Going Gets Rough, zeros in on the path to embracing and working with the backlash for what it is: old coping mechanisms we wisely adopted as kids to make it through traumas we didn’t know how to handle any other way.
You have the courage to sally forth into a future you’ve only dreamed about. But you have to start moving in that direction, and it’s not always done in simple steps or a straight line. Don’t let that stop you.
I am reading Jessica Honegger’s book ‘Imperfect Courage.’ Because, I am imperfect in practicing courage and it’s always nice to have validation for the okness of our imperfections! I love this line in the intro: “I’m not here to tell you to stop feeling afraid; instead, this book is a guide to going scared.” If you are experiencing fear, uncertainty, and doubt- you are probably mentally healthy and self-aware. I worry about people that claim otherwise. And wonder what substance they are medicating with.
“We know that outside our front door, something much more fulfilling awaits. But instead of pursuing the desires of our hearts, we spend our energy in defense mode, trying to avoid disappointment, betrayal, and pain. Something in us clings to these places of safety and makes it difficult to stand – even as something deeper with us longs to stand up, to eventually rise.”
– Jessica Honegger, Imperfect Courage
I get it. I want things to be pleasant. I want to always have that kind of day with only happy, fulfilling events and surprises. Where I go home after an easy day’s work to a pleasant evening and warm feelings about myself and life as I drift off to a good night’s sleep. I’ve had a few of those days. And if we are fully human, fully open to life and its realities, mostly authentic and self-aware, and our bodies are communicating to our hearts and brains without censorship, not likely on most days.
And that’s ok. We are human beings, and we feel things. We react to events through the lens of our whole lives and everything that has happened to us. It’s how we get good information in the future. And sometimes, we get lousy information because there are old tapes that need to be recognized, thanked, and let go. Traumas happen. They get locked in the body. If we allow those stuck emotions to process through, we become practiced at moving through fear, uncertainty, and doubt and be able to live this extraordinary, wonderful, complicated life as it was meant to be lived.
“It’s tempting to bubblewrap our lives. Layer upon layer of protection means we stay unbroken right through to the end. We wrap ourselves in fear. We wrap ourselves in isolation. We wrap ourselves in nightly glasses of wine or in our bellowed Instagram feed. We avoid real issues involving real people who live in the real world because What if I get hurt?”
– Jessica Honegger, Imperfect Courage
Wanting not to expose myself to more brokenness: check. Isolating: check. Binge-watching Amazon Prime: check.
Being hurt. Ouch, to the core of my heart and soul. Many times. Betrayals and broken promises changed my life for the worse. Not to mention the Great Recession and the pandemic, which universally hurt the whole world. And look at what happened. People got outraged and stayed that way. How dare forces outside our control change our lives and make us fearful, uncertain, and doubting we could regain what we lost, or worse, questioning whether we would survive?
Especially in so-called first-world countries, we have been placated to accept that security, prosperity, upward mobility, and freedom are our birthright. Suddenly economic forces (manmade) and a strange new virus (in the biological petri dish of planet Earth) upends all that we think is true. But really, it was never true. And people have had their lives upended by economics, wars, violence, pestilence, and just plain meanness of their fellow human beings throughout history. We aren’t special.
When pursuing my master’s degree in ministry at Creighton University, my old testament professor had us read the entire thing from start to finish. I was astonished at how the human condition was the same then as it is now. Ups and downs, oppression, plagues, narcissism, and plots by the ruling class to gain power and control by oppressing women, minorities, and those not conforming to the heteropatriarchy. It’s the story of today but without motors.
So what does this have to do with creativity? If you look at the lives of the profoundly creative – Mozart, Beethoven, Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, mathematicians Gladys West and John Nash, nuclear fission discoverer Lise Meitner, Hildegard of Bingen, and on and on, they had plenty of pain, mental and physical illness, and poverty. While it was not popular to report it, my guess is that they also experienced fear, uncertainty, and doubt. But they pursued their calling despite those very uncomfortable emotions, and our world is better for it. You don’t have to be them to listen to your inner urges to venture outside your “comfort zone.”
As Jessica Honegger says, “Respond to that prompting today. Don’t let another twenty-four hours pass in which you push off what you know you must do.”
The desire for only pleasant emotions may seduce us into turning down the adventures that would open up a whole new world. A world where we can fully be ourselves and do the work we long to do. Don’t be seduced. Choose courage and make the critical impact only you – with your very own unique to you gifts and talents – were meant to make. The world needs you to have courage. Moving past the seduction of pleasantness and into all real-life brings is the path to changing your life and changing the world.
“… You bring everything you’ve got to this one life that you have been given to make a meaningful impact for others. That thing that makes you come alive that you’ve just been waiting for the courage to do? It’s time to give it a go.”
– Jessica Honegger, Imperfect Courage
I’d love to hear more about your experience with courage and your journey toward your dreams. Send me a message and let’s talk. It helps me to hear from you about your own struggles and triumphs. We can walk through this messy life together.
Interested in the steps to a creative life? Download The Seedbop Navigator: 9 Seedbop Habits: Move Past Fear and Stuckness, Become Wildly Creative, Unveil Your One-of-a-Kind Brilliance, Solve Big Problems, Persist Through the Hard Stuff, Flourish in Your Work and Life, Have Fun, Make Things Happen, and Make Your Heart Sing. (click here)
This is the guidebook that will point you in the direction of a more creative life. It’s free. I’m here to help. Walk with me on the Seedbop Journey. Let’s do this together.
Quotes from Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared, by Jessica Honegger, 2018, Waterbrook – Crown Publishing Group, Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
