The Willing Embrace of Fear
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to interview one of the great fighter aces of the Vietnam era.
He was talking about the training of fighter pilots.
Here’s what he said:
Why do we train? To perfect our flying skills, yes. But far more important, we practice to elevate our threshold of emotional detachment, to inculcate that state of preparedness and equilibrium that enables a pilot to function effectively under conditions of peril, urgency, and confusion.
A fighter pilot accelerating down the runway on an operational mission must keep foremost in his mind one reality: At some point before his wheels touch down again, something is certain to go wrong. Will he have an engine failure? Will an unseen enemy appear? Will another plane in his formation experience a crisis of some kind?
Bank on it: Something unexpected will happen. When it does, it will be followed almost always by a second emergency, and often a third, in immediate succession, each one producing a graver crisis than the one before. In such an instant, the pilot’s body will exhibit all the signs of fear. His hands will shake; his heart rate will soar; his flight overalls will become drenched with sweat. But his mind must remain focused. His thinking must stay clear and calm.
We train, this great fighter ace said, not to overcome our fear. Fear cannot be overcome.
We train to teach ourselves how to keep functioning despite fear.
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
Thank you for this, Steven. Also, I can recommend Krishnamurti on Fear to anyone. Check it out folks. Happy writing.
I have this funny pinned above my writing desk. Two birds are talking.
One says: What are you afraid of?
Two answers: Well…that one day I’ll wake up and find myself entirely uninterested in the world around me…unable to conjure curiosity for the unfamiliar; no thrill in former delights; no appetite for change. How about you?
One says: Centipedes.
Keep on everyone. Don’t fret the centipedes.
Thank you very much dear Steve.
I would add a path to an experience here, and it connects to what the fighter said: “we practice to elevate our threshold of emotional detachment”. First, let me also bring forth your older saying “the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference”. I will include in your saying this: “If that is so, then the opposite of hate/fear is not love, it’s indifference.” So, my question is if indifference can be used as a healthy state of creating our art.
I can tell now from my present experience that the easiest -yes, easiest- way to write the book is by… having the act of doing the writing detached from any emotions of fear, etc. I guess love, too. [Now, I don’t mean that we are indifferent to the feelings that arise from the act of writing while we write, these may be holy and precious.] Once I sit, I just write. No questions asked. And, as it may be the problem for many, I try to save some energy to do that. I won’t do it at night, nor when I am devestated or much tired. I also protect now through detachment-management my emotional equilibrium from devastating external influences, and also manage to not overwork on my profession. See how all these bond together. The key here as I acknowledge it for now, to achieve the non-detachment-state of creating, is to have some internal energy saved, to not be exhausted. Or else you can’t write, the Resistance seems to the exhausted man as an impenetrable wall that reaches as high as the sky.
I write Steve, that is our win.
My love to you, Diana, everyone.
Message received.
At exact right moment.
Thank you.
Wheels up.
Thanks Steven, this rings so true, even with life not as a fighter pilot, just as a human being wanting to experience peace. the fear of the mind’s thoughts are constantly trying to distract and derail. when peace is so important for everything to do with being human, training becomes a muscle that requires building up, exercising daily, hourly and even more often as skill in letting go is developed. it sounds dramatic the way I’ve put it, yet to live in peace does require training and from a living guide. being in hell whilst alive is no fun.
Fear of success keeps many of us at home.
Wow!