A friend of mine is writing a book. She’s had the idea for a long time. In fact, the story is the backdrop for an amazing product line of fairy-like beings she’s created and turned into a cool small business. She’s hesitated to do the writing for a long time, and we finally got down to the why of it over a couple of cocktails the other night.

What stops most of us from pursuing a dream - whether that dream is climbing a mountain, running a race, finishing a degree, or writing a book - is often fear. Sure, we can make up excuses. I don’t have time, I’m not in shape, I’m not really a writer. Those things may all be true, but for me anyway, the thing that froze me in my tracks before I put one word on a page, was absolutely fear. I didn’t start writing until I was forty years old because I was afraid I really wasn’t as talented as people thought, I wouldn’t be able to finish what I started, and my stories wouldn’t be any good. And the biggest fear of all was that by putting my writing into the world I’d be exposing some sensitive, private pieces of myself.

I think the only way to counter fear is by putting one foot in front of the other. When we do this for long enough, we can look back and track our movements. When we commit to doing something toward our dream every day, we will make progress. Our fear may tell us we aren’t good enough, we’ll never finish, or that others may judge us, but we can make a choice to do our thing anyway.

At the end of the day, what matters most may be our decision to admit we’re afraid and still take that first step forward.