I found it ironic that, as I was beginning to research this topic online, my eyes were immediately drawn to a text box that read “Are you too busy for college?” and then explained the benefits of online college. This advertisement was immediately proceeded by another dark-blue message that read “What’s your credit score?” There on a search engine, sandwiched between a recipe for double-banana bread and small business web site info, were two promotions designed to awaken some measure of fear in viewers and to poke at their level one and level two fears. However, these seemingly harmless links perfectly illustrate points raised by Susan Jeffers in Feel Fear and Do It Anyway. Whether it is fear of economic failure and bad credit or playing the “when/then” game and putting off college, everyone experiences some level of fear and self-doubt. However, it is the action that one takes that is truly important. As Jeffers states, “What matters is that you begin…to develop your trust in yourself.” (1997).

As I read the author’s message of personal power, expanding one’s comfort zone, and fear truths, I was reminded of a German proverb, “Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” Sure, we all experience fear, but I wondered what was my big, bad wolf? What is holding me back professionally? Do I really believe I can handle anything? The answer, I found, was complicated.

Teaching is my second career. Initially, after college, I was in the management program at a major bank, and I decided to resign and become a teacher. Yes, Susan Jeffers would have been proud. Afterwards, I joined one of the post-bac programs at N.G.C.S.U. and quickly became a teacher before I had even student taught. Therefore, I could easily empathize with Jeffer’s account of her first teaching experience and feeling like “I was being sent to the guillotine” (1997). Then, after five years of teaching, I fell into a rut and began to play the “when/then” game. Obtaining a master’s degree is a rite of passage for most teachers, but I conveniently found excuses as to why I could not return to school; the list of excuses was endless, and I will not bore the reader with them. In spite of those excuses, I returned to school. I realized that “the only way to feel better about [my fear] is to go out…and do it.” And as a result, the fear of returning to school passed.

My next steps are to set a new goal and expand my comfort zone. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, author Andrea Coombes wrote, “If you cannot have a clear picture and imagine what it is you see yourself doing, it’s going to be hard” (2007). Much like Jeffer’s message of personal power, Coombes believes that, if you have no goal, then you are going nowhere: no goals, no go. Of course, I wholeheartedly agree with the statement; however, this decision is my latest fear. Where do I go next? After seven years of teaching I realize I need another change. Do I need to switch grades? Do I need to switch schools? At this point, I am unsure. However, after our readings, I realize that I have started to pay the “when/then” game once again, and my vocabulary has moved more toward the pain side of the chart.

In closing, we all experience fear; it is a part of life. As Dave Berry once joked, “All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears – - of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark.” Yet, it is how we “hold” the fear that is truly important. For me, I need to realize Jeffer’s truth 4: “Not only am I going to experience fear whenever I’m on unfamiliar territory, but so is everyone else” (1997). Then, I need to make some important decisions.

Works Cited:

Jeffers, Susan (1997), Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Rider and Co.

Coombes, A. (2007, February 23). How to switch to a new career. Retrieved October 1, 2007, from The Wall Street Journal Web site: http://www.careerjournal.com