How to change the world? Write down what you’re afraid of

The question was “What’s one action that people can take right now to help move them forward towards their goal of changing the world?” Here is Seth Godin’s answer:  “Write down what you’re afraid of. Be vulnerable about it. Confront your shame and to be aware of the fact that if you’re not finding it difficult to write down, it’s probably not what you’re afraid of. That act leads to you taking responsibility for the next set of choices as opposed to blaming the outside world that is stacked against you because of what you look like, who your parents are, where you were born, how you speak, how old you are, who you know, who you don’t know and what cards you were dealt.  That’s all a given, right? But if we take that and put it right next to what are you afraid of, then I think you can chart a course that isn’t filled with excuses and deniability. Well of course it didn’t work because I have this whole list, which I used to carry around on a piece of paper in the back of my head before I finally got rid of it. This whole list of why it wasn’t fair. You say all right that’s all a given but given that, I chose to make this, what do you think? And the act of doing that is really, really difficult. No other creature on earth knows how to do it. Most humans are afraid to do it and if you can figure out what part of that process you are afraid of, I think you are going to discover your life changes.” —Seth Godin