“Don’t let fear stop you from doing the thing you love”

All of us have things we love to do in life, but sometimes we let fear get in our way of actually doing them. We are afraid of messing up, or afraid of being embarrassed in front of others, or afraid of failing…so instead we don’t do that thing we love…and that is a shame…

Today my extended family came together to go and see the animated movie “Sing”. It was a fun movie for the kids with cute music and dancing and funny moments, but from an adult perspective the thing I really liked was the message the movie was trying to portray. The best way to explain the message is to share this quote from the movie that was said by the character Buster Moon, a theater production manager who is trying to help an elephant named Meena overcome her fear of singing in public:

“Don’t let fear stop you from doing the thing you love.”

Meena had an amazing voice and she loved to sing, but she was absolutely terrified to sing in public. Buster is finally able to convince Meena that she should perform but right before she is set to go onstage she has a panic attack and can’t bring herself to walk onto the stage.  Buster says to her:

Just start singing. Once you do, the fear goes away.”

I loved that part of the movie because that advice is true for all of us – no matter what age we are! The best way to overcome our fear of something is to start doing the very thing we are afraid of.

In Susan Jeffers book, “Feel The Fear…And Do It Anyway” she states:

“Often we think, ‘I’ll do it when I am not so afraid.’ But in reality, it works the other way around. The ‘doing it’ comes before the fear goes away. The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it.”

Now is the perfect time to put your fear aside and try something new. We are heading into a new year that is full of possibilities….

So as Buster Moon says in the movie Sing, “Get a good nights sleep and dream big dreams.”

Have a great one!

~Amy Rees Anderson

1 Comment

  • Jane says:

    I took our family to see that movie too. What a blessing to sit in the theatre and see all ten of us really get that message of the movie. We are age 65 to 12 and everyone of us enjoyed the movie and it really spoke to us. I have not read the book you mentioned. Maybe it’s time for me to do that.

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