Have you ever stopped to wonder why we sometimes don’t do the things we really want to do? Maybe you have wanted to write a book, start a business as a writer, or work toward some other goal that’s important to you.

We can all think of times when we have shrunk back and didn’t work toward those goals. Why not? Is it laziness? Lack of discipline? A lack of talent?

No, it’s usually just self-doubt. Even if the logical side of our brains tells us we can achieve it, self-doubt creeps in and we hold back. The novelist Sylvia Plath once said, “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Self-doubt seems like a relatively mild concept, but let’s call a spade a spade. Self-doubt is just fear in disguise. We don’t doubt ourselves because of any rational thought process. We’re just plain old scared of failing.

So, take courage. If you’re working on a big goal and you have a good plan for achieving it, don’t get sidetracked by negative emotions.

That fear you’re feeling is just a ghost, a mirage, a phantom. There’s nothing it can do to hurt you, and if you ignore it, it will eventually go away and haunt somebody else.

Question: Are you holding back from accomplishing a goal that’s important to you? What would it feel like to start moving toward it even though you’re afraid?