I want to take a moment to step aside from some of my previous discussions about the technology behind what is guiding us into a new era of communications and my ruminations on why I can’t stand the term “blogger relations” to discuss something far more personal to me: fear. Specifically, how my fears shape and alter my personal and professional goals and convictions.

I might as well get this out of the way now: Not performing up to the abilities I know I have—both personally and professionally—is a fear I have each and every day. And I think I’m pretty bad at hiding it. See, I’m not the confident type. I’m not Stuart Foster, who is a brilliant marketing mind. You have one conversation with Stuart and you instantly know the guy is confident, a bit brash and definitely knows what he is doing. He’s going places, and he’s not afraid to let you know that.

I’m not that guy. And that’s OK. Yes, I said it. I’m OK with not being the supremely confident guy. Look, we all have fears in our lives. Come on, admit it, you do, too. But what I think makes us strong people, and what helps us to overcome and tap into those fears to actually make something positive out of them is our ability to see that fear can actually be good for us. It can be liberating. And screw those who think that fear is a four-letter word. I never listened to the so-called “experts” anyway.

Think about fear in one of the two categories:

• Fear that paralyzes us because we either refuse to acknowledge or deal with it, or we don’t seek out the proper help and resources to manage it
• Fear that we embrace, for we know it’s part of who we are, it’s deep within our psyche, and to try to forget that exists will only serve to harm us, either psychologically or physically.

What this all comes down to and how it relates to PR? Good question. The thing is, I may appear to have it all together and to usually have a few answers to a good problem, but I live every day in fear that I won’t live up to my own lofty standards, whether that be in best serving my clients, my employer, my girlfriend or anyone else that I am responsible to. I’m in a constant mental tussle with myself to overcome those fears and channel that energy to kick ass at whatever I’m doing. Because like my very savvy friend Stuart Foster, I, too, want to be the best at what I do; I just have to go about doing that in a far different way than he, and many of you, do. And I’m OK with that. Really, I am.

In the coming days, I will be putting myself out there like never before in my life. And it’s fearful like nothing that I could have imagined. But as I’m beginning to understand about almost every fear that I encounter—and eventually, overcome—in my life, the rewards, the mental high and the sense of holy-crap-this-is-awesome! that comes with great moments of fear, adrenaline and channeled nervouesness like the one I’m about to face head on is worth every damn penny of the buildup.

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So get your fear on, my friends. Let’s all embrace a bit of adrenaline today.