I am very afraid of public speaking. But I did it last night. It was a panel discusion, so it wasn’t quite as scary as giving a full-on speech. But I feel stronger (and relieved) to have survived without too much embarrassment. Though I did lay awake between two and four in the morning, surrounded by my snoozing baby, cat and husband, wishing I’d said things differently and that I’d said things I hadn’t. Still. I did it and it feels pretty good.
So I’m imagining my friend Jaimal Yogis must feel extremely badass right about now. He spent the past three years facing his biggest fears (big ones, like surfing Mavericks and becoming a dad), conquering them, and writing about them in a book that’s coming out in January called The Fear Project. It’s available for pre-order now, and I cannot wait to get my mitts on it, being a person with her fair share of feariness. Plus I’m dying to read Jaimal’s first hand account of surfing Mavericks, one of the most extreme surf spots in the world.
Check out the props Jaimal’s book has gotten from other authors and scientists. I think this one is my favorite:
This book would be worth the price of admission for the Maverick’s chapter alone–the first and, as far as I know, only literary first-person account of riding one of the greatest big-wave breaks on earth, for which Yogis has both the surfing ability and the writing chops, making a unique contribution to surf literature. But Yogis is a also man on an authentic mission–to face down his deepest fears and–as in all of his writing–to interrogate the deepest sources of meaning in every aspect of human life. From his hapless Alcatraz swim at the book’s beginning to his success at Maverick’s to that biggest challenge of all–fatherhood–Yogis writes with confidence, clarity, and brio. This is a heartfelt, hard-won, and utterly worthwhile book.” – Daniel Duane, author of Caught Inside, Looking for Mo, and How to Cook Like a Man.
Sounds pretty macho, but knowing Jaimal and his excellent writing, and if we can judge at all by his first book Saltwater Buddha, it’s safe to say you won’t have to be a manly man to enjoy The Fear Project. I’m guessing anyone who suspects their fears are holding them back from achieving everything they’d like to in life—from lil old me facing my next panel discusion on style to an Olympic athlete trying to win a medal—will love this book. I cannot wait to dive in!
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