Fearful Pursuits

 “Do one thing every day that scares you.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

 

     When she was a young girl, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was neither considered to be very pretty or very bright.  Ignored by her rich and powerful father and disregarded by her beautiful mother, "Ellie" as she was called, was just not expected to amount to much.  As we know now, she went on to become one of the greatest first ladies of the United States.

 

     Eleanor Roosevelt's difficulty was later identified as dyslexia.  For those of us with dyslexia, life is often lived in a series of dissonant dances where success often comes by a simple refusal to stop moving forward.  Sometimes that is scary enough. 

 

     Progress is not a smooth transition from one task or event to another.  Rather it can be an exciting, unpredictable, but dizzy whirl when things go well.  When things go badly,  my progress may more closely resemble a stumbling stagger across the floor.  Even my success gets measured differently.  I usually do not place much emphasis on items checked off on a list.  (I do use them though!)  Instead, a successful week for me is when I do something which unsettles me and shakes me out of my routine every day, forcing me out of my comfort zone.  A bad week is when I wrap myself warmly in my insecurities, ignoring the outside world as much as I can.  Some weeks, like some days, are better, and go better, than others.