If you know of this fine line between pleasure and pain, then you, just like me, have discovered “joyfear”.
I stumbled across this very astute (and oh so apt) mantra when reading a piece by Krissy Brady (writers, do yourself a favour and read full post here) and was immediately struck by how this notion summed up perfectly the flux state of my being of late. I’d been riding a roller coaster range of emotions, having had my flame for fiction writing reignited, but at the same time dueling against a gnawing trepidation of rejection.
And even though the cloud of possible failure did not dissipate, I continued to feel compelled to write, even in the face of it. Normally I’d succumb to the dread that is interwoven with anything that is associated with risk, but this past week I spurned it’s tempting advances and continued typing.
And typing, typing, typing, all the while invigorated instead of anxious. And that, my writer friends, is the joy de vivre that is joyfear.
Leo Babauta, who gets the full cred for coining this clever term, explains this phenomenon in greater detail:
So this is me actively – and very publicly – embracing the notion of joyfear. Long may this creative force reign supreme…

what a great quote. I think we all need a little fear to push us that little more and to inspire us as well. keep going x
Love it Donna – your joyfear energy is just jumping off the page at me!
If we only ever pursued those things that were ‘sure bets’ I don’t think life would be very satisfying at all 🙂
I think my current writing journey is also in a joyfear stage. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a precipice… sometimes as if I’m falling from it! But it’s great to be FEELING. And doing.
I know that Joyfear only too well. I am very, very happy to hear that you are writing so furiously. Keep going, lovely! x