“What would you do, if you weren’t afraid?”

This is the question I ask myself every day: “What would I do, if I wasn’t afraid?” I like the question because I think it isolates the variable of “fear” in any equation or decision, and I think fear, while natural, is irrational and shouldn’t hold weight in any consideration. Funny as it may sound, the question has become a “friend” of mine…holding my hand through my most trying adventures.

“What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?”

It’s the question I asked myself before I packed everything I owned into my car and drove down to San Diego where I had no family, job or place to live. It’s the question I asked myself when I decided to travel alone and leave my friends at the train station in Switzerland. It’s the question I asked myself right before each time I jumped out of a plane and before each shot I got for Central America. It’s the question I ask myself each time I walk up to a cute guy and introduce myself, right before I ran the half-marathon last week, as I slapped down the plastic to buy my airplane ticket to Guatemala, and right before I quit my job. It’s the question that took me to all the places in the pictures above…and it is the question I will ask myself before getting on that plane *alone* on March 26th.

People send me notes all the time telling me how “brave” and “fearless” I am, so I’d just like to state for the record — “fearless” I am not. I promise you I’ll be shakin’ like a Guatemalan maraca as my plane touches down in Guatemala City — but — as Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear…not absence of fear.”

What would YOU do if you weren’t afraid?