# Taking the First Step I am a planner. I want to know everything before I start something. I like control, and I need to know how things are going to pan out. But we can't control everything. We can't know everything. I am well aware of this. In fact, if Covid taught us anything, that was it. And I spent so much of that time working on letting go. On surrendering to whatever happens. Going with the flow. Being present. Because the truth is, we never know if something will work or not. We will never know for sure what direction things will take. All we know is this moment right now. And yet, what stops many of us from taking that very first step is often the fear of failure. As Erin Hanson so poetically put it "What if I fall?" Oh my darling, but what if you fly? Or yet, maybe it is not the fear of failure after all? Maybe our fear is that we *will* fly. Maybe our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, as Marianne Williamson said, but that our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure... > "It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? > > Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. > > We are all meant to shine, as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. > > And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." So take the step. Tiptoe if you must. But take the step.