How to live without fear–

1. Ain’t nothing to fear

1. Know what your maximum downside is: You won’t go broke, become homeless, and starve to death. In modern society, the worse that will happen is that you will become ‘shamed’ — but you will always be fed. And thank God for this thing called ‘bankruptcy’ — which society forgives your debts, and allows you to start again– carte blanche (blank slate).
2. Gratitude for modern society: Most of us won’t be drafted into a war. We have relative freedom of publishing and sharing our ideas, without getting jailed, tortured, or maimed.
3. The world offers us limitless potential and opportunities: Consider the wealth-expansion and wealth-generation of the internet. We got no fetters to our curiosity, and our ability to learn, and our ability to share our artwork with millions (potentially billions).

2. Less fear = more risks you can take

The less we fear, the more risks we can take. And the more risks we take, the more confident we feel. And the more confident we feel, the more we can produce more art. And the more art we can make, the more we can empower our viewers. And the more we empower our viewers, the more we can empower all of humankind. And the more you empower humankind — it is a positive feedback loop — you empower yourself more. Everyone wins.

3. What is your worst-case scenario?

Personally, I live with very little fear, because I have stared into the abyss, and honestly, it isn’t that bad.

1. Not fearing financial bankruptcy: My mom has gone bankrupt in the past. Not too bad. Difficulty to open up a bank account and get loans and whatever– but she was able to re-build her credit over the years. And we got a lot of friends from family and friends.
2. Not fearing disgrace: I have given myself permission to become a clown, a jester and to be despised, hated, and to be a little bit of a villain. Like BATMAN — sometimes you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. And to be frank, as long as you’re staying true to yourself, and not compromising your own ideals, you will never feel self-disgrace (the worst kind of disgrace).

4. My only fear

The only thing I fear is losing my hunger for creating new art. I think my personal hell would be having no inspiration or motivation to make new works of art. I fear losing inspiration to making new pictures, new poems, new essays, and ideas.

Other than that– I don’t really fear much.

And the antidote to this fear is to never stop exploring. To never stop learning. To channel my personal dissatisfaction in a positive way.

5. How I feed myself

To stimulate myself to feed my mind (reading) I drink coffee, do physical exercise, or just go on long and aimless walks.

Also — I find a great deal of inspiration to learn because I know I want to share this cool information with others.

In other words,

I like to learn in order that I may share.

Like Seneca said, ‘Nothing is worth possessing, unless one has friends he can share it with.’

Like Jesus and the parable of the bread and fish– the more you share, the more the bread and fish multiply, and the more everyone is fed and satisfied.

Information is great– it doesn’t get ‘consumed.’ The more you share information, the more it spread virally, and the more it grows abundant.

The individual who shares a lot is super-abundant in vitality, strength, and ideas. And the more an individual shares, the MORE bountiful his resources become.

6. You got this.

I know I’m getting off-topic, but to distill my thinking:

Don’t fear.

You got nothing to fear. You will not starve to death, or be stoned to death.

Only fear losing inspiration and motivation. And to combat that– feed your creative spirit by making more pictures, by sharing more, and by learning more.

Also I suggest have someone to share your artwork with. Share via email, social media, or publishing to your own website or blog.

And be selfish– the more selfish you are, and the more you feed yourself and make yourself wealthy — the more you can share with others and empower others.

BE STRONG,
ERIC