Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Quotes, Fear, and Safety

I’ve been “harvesting” quotes lately.  I love quotes and I like to use them to express what I believe to be true in a way that keeps me from going on for whole paragraphs about my feelings and beliefs.  Oh, and sometimes I like them for their humor or silliness.  Today, as I was finding little gems in my Twitter feed, I came across four of them that were so appropriate for my clients, their clients, and my readers that I decided to clump them together and write whole paragraphs about them—OK, not whole paragraphs but at least whole sentences.

Here they are:
  • "A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for." Grace Murray Hopper
  • Never fear shadows. They simply mean there is a light shining somewhere nearby.
  • Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomfort. - Arnold Bennett, novelist
  • Love is random; fear is inevitable. -Orson Scott Card
You will notice they all have to do with safety and fear.  It’s so easy to get fearful about our businesses and what might happen if we do this or that or the other thing.  It’s natural—we all want to have the calm of a safe harbor but, paraphrasing Grace Murray Hopper, that’s not what we’re built for.

I’ve been thinking about how much fear has been holding me back and how much being safe has kept me from more success and, who knows, greatness?  How about you?  Are you letting your fear hold you back, too? Step out of your comfort zone a little. You can start with baby steps—don’t jump off a bridge when leaping into a swimming pool will do nicely.

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