#Trust30 Day 7: Dare to Be Bold

#Trust30 is an online initiative and 30-day writing challenge that encourages you to look within and trust yourself. Use this as an opportunity to reflect on your now, and to create direction for your future. 30 prompts from inspiring thought-leaders will guide you on your writing journey. Sign up below to receive the prompts by email. If you like this pledge, check out reverb10, it's inspiring.

Dare to be bold by Matt Cheuvront

Our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate, where strength is born. – Ralph Waldo Emerson


“Next to Resistance, rational thought is the artist or entrepreneurs worst enemy. Bad things happen when we employ rational thought, because rational thought comes from the ego. Instead, we want to work from the Self, that is, from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious.


A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. Its only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” - Steven Pressfield, Do the Work


The idea of “being realistic” holds all of us back. From starting a business or quitting a job to dating someone who may not be our type or moving to a new place – getting “real” often means putting your dreams on hold.


Today, let’s take a step away from rational thought and dare to be bold. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to accomplish but have been afraid to pursue? Write it down. Also write down the obstacles in your way of reaching your goal. Finally, write down a tangible plan to overcome each obstacle.


The only thing left is to, you know, actually go make it happen. What are you waiting for?


(Author: Matt Cheuvront)

The only thing I can think of that I have always wanted to do, since I was old enough to talk, was to write a book.  The joke in my family was that I would write the book and my sister would illustrate it. I never let go of that dream/idea until well after I graduated high school. I think it was one of the dreams put aside "temporarily" when Roby was diagnosed with HIV.  I still always thought that I would write a book - sometimes I still do.

 Obstacles:

• Me. That's the main obstacle. In more than one way
• I haven't made the time.
• I don't have the confidence in my writing anymore - not like I did when I was a kid.
• Fear can be a powerful deterrent - fear of failure, fear of success, fear of criticism, fear of the unknown.

The plan:

I actually started a plan and started writing last year. I have been writing "Roby stories" because I think that is the place any book(s) I would write would start. That story is the one that sometimes leaps in my chest to get out. Not just about his illness and our experience of that - the funny stories, the goofy things we did, the happy memories I have and our times together. It would be a friendship story, not a tragedy. It has a tragic ending, but there was a lot of good in the story, too.

So, concrete plan is to return to my original plan - write about 750 words a day - gather the stories in one place - just get them out and then go back and start the crafting of the words.

Once I start crafting the words, I will look at the writing classes at PCC - they have several "Memoir" classes - that would be a place to start on a more serious path.