Do not let fear run your life

   Every week, Agfinity tries to put out a newsletter. We’ve been doing it pretty much since day one, back in 2010.  Up until last April, Jared had been doing most of the writing and we only had our main newsletter. Then, for some reason I spoke up and said, “I wouldn’t mind writing as well. Let’s create a smaller newsletter and call it the Pint-Size!”  Now, that seems straight forward, but as I was thinking about what I was going to write, I wanted to share with you how this easily may never have happened…

   As I said before, Jared has been writing the newsletter for over eight years and we’ve religiously been putting one out every other week. As you may know, Jared
started as a great writer and has only gotten better over time.  Now, you may not see the set up I’m creating, but when someone is doing a terrific job and you’re looking to create something along side them, that can be a very intimidating task.  Back when we started the Pint-Size in April, I chose to hit my fear head on. Fear of not being as good of a writer as Jared. Fear of not having anything to write about. And fear of what other people may or may not say.

   This is one small area of my life where I have taken those walls and bashed them down. However, there are so many other areas where we have let the success and giftings of others stop us from even starting.  How many times have you invited someone to play a game or activity and they say no because you’re too good at it (
me neither but I thought it would be a good analogy).

   The one way I knew to tackle those insecurities was to just start writing and to ask for feedback from Jared on what I could have done and could do better, realizing that time and perseverance pay off. Those are not just cliché statements for my kids… I encourage you to step out and try something you truly want to do and not let the fact that someone close to you is more experienced or better at it than you. 

   What a great way to experience new things and challenge yourself. We’d love to hear what you are thinking about pursuing! Maybe it’s a musical instrument. Maybe it’s curling, painting, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, or competitive hot tubbing… The other benefit is if you start now, you’ll be a little better than someone else when they pick it up as a New Years resolution.