Afraid of widths [and how to overcome it]

A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths. ~ Steven Wright

The Comedian Steven Wright can come up with a lot of these short, original snips and say them in a deadpan fashion that you can't help but laugh at.

I mean, honestly, who is afraid of widths? But wait a minute, Wright may be onto something here. Wright may be right!

So many people are afraid of heights and for good reasons. If you fall from a height you could get hurt, seriously injured or even killed.

But why be afraid of widths?

As I was thinking about this, I came to the conclusion that widths are frightening because how will we know how far it is from here to there—with here being our starting point and there being our success point—?

If it is clear as far as the eye can see, just how far is that?

Why are widths scary?

Widths can be extremely scary because our eyes can deceive us. For example, have you ever driven on a tar road on a hot day and you see the shimmering mirage ahead of you that looks like water in the road? If you have driven on a tar road on a hot day, I know you have, unless you can't see and then you probably shouldn't be driving.

That mirage always seems just a ways out of reach. You can't judge the width of how far it is from you because it appears to always keep the same distance ahead of you.

Just like with heights, our eyes have a hard time judging with any real accuracy just how far up from the ground we are or how far away we are from our destination.

How to overcome the fear of widths?

There is no steadfast way to overcome the fear of widths, but I can tell you how I did it and maybe my example will help you, too.

Instead of trying to catch that illusive mirage, try instead to enjoy the ride. If we chase after things that are not there, how can we ever hope to:

1. catch them, and
2. enjoy having captured something that doesn't exist in the first place?

No, I still don't know how close or far away from success I am, but knowing that there is no effective measuring tool to judge this distance, I just push ahead and keep working toward completing my goals.

One step at a time. One day at a time. One obstacle at a time. One mirage at a time. Eventually our work does have a payoff. We either get the gold ring or we learn valuable lessons.

Keep writing your business websites or recording your YouTube channels or whatever you are doing because that is how you defeat your fear of widths!

This may not be what some people want to hear or read, but overcoming the fear of widths is all on us individually! We are the only ones that can get us through this!

Maybe before you read this you were not afraid of widths. There is no reason that you should start being afraid of them now, either!

Just keep on going. You got this!

With 2020 vision,
Karin 😁