Moving Beyond Your Fears

Mark Leslie Lefebvre

After seeing several worthy blogs, including a wonderful webinar sponsored by Jane Friedman on Creating Income and Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction with Mark Leslie Lefebvre, I was inspired to dig out a few old short stories, most of which were written in college. My intention is to post them and see what happens.

There is a learning curve with Kindle Direct Publishing. Admittedly, I chose them out of laziness. Amazon is a huge firm and a few solid hits will move my name as an author. Also, Kindle is an easy enough program to use, not that all their instructions are well-written, but no major hair pulling needed. I guess I needed a platform for my short stories and this fit me.

But more important than where this can take my work is my desire to get my work out—to share my stories, be it my personal point of view through my characters or creating an entirely fabricated person I wouldn't ever agree with at any level that matters. Writing is my passion. It is what I love to do. That we do what we love, that we move beyond our comfort zone and out of fear is the most valuable thing we can do for ourselves.

If only in the first grade a substitute teacher didn't butcher my first story with red ink—dozens of corrections and a huge red F displayed in the corner—I'm sure I would have felt the satisfaction of accomplishment and achieved many worthy goals at a early age, especially in the field of writing .

Why do we wait for motivation, for inspiration, for the right kick in the pants before we set out to explore, to do, to live, to learn, to achieve? Two of my top five favorite quotes are “What would I do if I knew I could not fail?” and “What other people think about me is none of my business.” Every time I speak these words, I question why I let fear be a constant influence when it comes to things that matter so much to me.

Now that many of us have the virus to thank for the unexpected gift of time, and even if it didn’t put us in quarantine, don’t let the opportunity pass you by that could otherwise serve as time to do what your heart as always desired to accomplish. If something brings you joy, if it serves you and the greater good, it’s worth doing.

Don't wait for something outside of you to spark your fire within.
Make your dreams happen because you're worth the effort!