WHAT WILL YOU DO, IF YOU WEREN'T AFRAID?

I loved reading books growing up. They had a way of transporting me to a galaxy far away from mine, where I didn't have to partake in any house chores or go to school, where I was pampered all day. I also fantasized about being the cool characters of these book.

There was a time I read the whole of old testament in the Bible and I imagined that I was Queen Esther, and at times Deborah. I also imagined that I was Racheal, one of Jacobs wives but when I got to the part where she died while giving birth to Benjamin, my imagination about Racheal ended.

The first Book I wrote about in my little note book back in the day was 'Evbu my Love' and that was
how the love to write about books started. There was no book club in my school then, so writing was the only outlet I had to share my thoughts about books.

I read romance based novels, fiction, crime and law e.t.c. As I grew older I yearned for motivational, faith based and spiritual books, Books that fed my soul, intriguing and insightful.
 

Something I realised whilst reading all of these books as an adult was the urge to write my thoughts about them in a note pad again.

At the beginning of the year 2016, one of my new year resolutions was to read a book or two per month and write about it. I struggled to finish the first chapter of every book I tried to read, no matter how hard I tried

Another new year resolution I made was to eat healthy more. I started few healthy eating challenges and I never made it to the second week.
My Inability to keep to these new year resolutions dampened my spirit all the time.

I will have to thank Diane Ore for recommending this book LEAN IN - WOMEN, WORK AND THE WILL TO LEAD by SHERYL SANDBERG.
I must say that as soon as I saw this book, I felt an instant connection. It seemed like something I had waited for.
This book did not disappoint me one bit as I breezed through each page filled with enthusiasm, learning something new, having numerous Aha moments and the urge to write and share my thoughts about the book.

I was glad that I finally got my reading mojo back.

In the first chapter of this Book, the author posted a question - 'What will you do if you weren't afraid?'. I thought long and hard about things that I would loved to do if I was not afraid and could not think of any.

If given the opportunity, I will do all that I loved to do, I thought to myself. Then I said
I will love to start writing again and eating healthy, but I doubt if fear is a hindering factor.

My Friend Detola advised that I gave it more thought, and I did, though I came up with numerous excuses why the lack of opportunity was a hindrance to my love for eating healthy and writing not fear.

For few days, I practiced the act of self reflection and I realised that fear was actually an hindrance for me.

The thought of not being able to see a healthy challenge through scared me from starting so I stopped trying, the thought of not being able to finish a chapter of book annoyed me, so I stopped trying to read but I still bought books and lined up my shelf with them. If I was unable to read a book through, how was I going to write about these books?

I was able to figure out that Fear was actually holding me back from keeping to those two new year resolutions I made.
So I have decided to challenge myself to start eating healthy starting from June 1st and to start reading a book per month and who knows, it might increase to two.

I took my writing challenge up a notch by starting a book review blog so I can share my thoughts with everyone that visits the blog instead of just writing them in my note book.

I had fears about starting this blog, What if no one reads it?  What if no one visits the blog? What if I am not able to keep updating it? What if I am not able to encourage someone to read it? What If my passion to enlighten someone about a book is not seen through my writings and reviews? So many What If's?

However, If I don't start this, I will never know the answers to my What If's? So I decided to just do it anyway. Even If my worst fears are confirmed, I will take solace in the fact that I gave it a go.

I have the desire and maybe passion to encourage people to develop reading habits especially young ones. Social media has opened my eyes to the fact that people cannot be bothered to read past the headlines and so share half baked information based on the headlines.

Some people can't be bothered to look up the meaning of Feminism on the internet, but go around sharing half baked knowledge about this topic.

I feel so privileged to be alive in such an era where the internet is just at our finger tips

The internet is such a powerful tool and a hub of resources. It will be great if we all use this tool to seek Knowledge and apply it to our day to day life. After all knowledge is power and in all things we are advised to seek it.

I hope the reviews on books shared on this platform will convert someone to a reader and a book lover


The world is constantly evolving and as inhabitants of the world we need to keep up and evolve too. One sure way of doing so is to update our knowledge base, a sure way of updating knowledge base is to be open minded towards reading and research.

Let us aspire to gain knowledge. After all no 'Knowledge gained is waste'

Let me end this post by asking you all 'What will you do if you weren't afraid?' 

 Whatever It is, Just Do  It.

            Best wishes
            Bola Awe