Great job on this article! Two days before reading I was thinking about all the decisions I have made driven by fear/ over active survival mechanisms, and I was trying to think of ways I could avoid letting fear rule my life. When I read your article, I knew I was not the only one letting fear run my life. I plan to implement your strategies immediately!

Thanks for the great (and very timely) newsletter! It is great to not only read your article, but to also read other people’s responses. Knowing that other people are in very similar situations is almost reassuring – we are not trying to keep our head above water all alone! We might feel like we are in this great, big, vast, open ocean, fearful that we are alone in our problems and issues, but in reality, we actually are in a pond with many other people and with a shore in site. Now we just need to swim to it, dry off and go on our merry way!

Thank you so much for the great words of encouragement while also giving wonderful action items to combat issues. Many times, people write about issues and problems and give great analysis, but they leave out the most important part – giving good, solid, action items to address and get over the challenges.

I look forward to your next newsletter and getting my fear funk down to a manageable level.

I have been in a fear funk for many years. I have mistakenly chosen career paths that I thought I should take or that were influenced by family members in the same career.

Today, I look at my life and I am bored, which scares me. I’m trying a writing/editing career, which doesn’t pay much, and that scares me. Friends who will listen are few and far between and usually “too busy” for subsequent visits after I “unload” and that makes me default to small talk as a friendship builder. Sad.

I am making it, though, one day at a time and with one foot in front of the other. Doors are opening, but only by cracks. Hopefully, that will be enough to put me in the driver’s seat. Keep writing your letters of encouragement.

Tom Tibbatts
New Preston, CT.

I am experiencing “Fear Funk” and am trying to overcome it. I have been going to meetings, volunteering on a community Board, and thinking about all of my past work experiences. I am trying to be open to new thinking, or new thinking about old occupations: 3 years in the medical field, 6 years in education, my creative side and my art background, and other experiences. It is exhausting reinventing myself again at almost 65, but I try to see new opportunities. Still struggling though… This morning I cut my own hair, just to take CONTROL of something! It looks great! Thanks for your input. It’s very much appreciated. –Gay