Dear Emelie:

You wrote: “I can be extremely driven and stubborn once I get going and  have  my  mind set on something”. If you were a car that drives while the escalator pedal is pressed, then the fear  is like the brake pedal. It  is the friction of braking repeatedly that slows down the drive and is so exhausting: it takes a lot of extra pressing of the escalator pedal when the brake is being pushed at  the same  time.

Thing is, everyone is afraid. We can’t eliminate it  (I tried…), so it takes mindful living, that is paying  attention to the fear and calming  it again and again, shorten the duration of fear, lessen it, so the friction is not so great and the drive is  not that exhausting. It also takes making wiser and wiser  choices as you go on, to maximize your chances of succeed and minimize your chances of failure, as  there are no guarantees, only probabilities.

anita