It is a fear that is sometimes paralyzing: What will they think of me? It has driven many a creative person into the doldrums of common living. This fear has squashed more dreams and damaged more people's self-esteem than most other fears combined.

Think back to a time in your life when your efforts or dreams have been hampered by your fear of popular opinion. When this happens, you are caught in the middle of true self and public self. For many people, public self wins most every time.

The court of public opinion is a very strong entity. It can try you and convict you before you know what hit you. Can you imagine the number of inventions, cures, artistic creations, literature, and social programs that have gone untried because of fear of what others would think of the idea?

Censoring Yourself

The fear of what others think can cause a frightening phenomenon in your life. It can cause you to censor what you think, what you feel, what you really want to do because someone may think it is foolhardy or inappropriate.

Censoring means that you did not say what you wanted to say at that meeting last week because no one else had ever said it before. Censoring yourself means that you decided not to take that class in sculpting because none of your friends had ever done it before. Censoring means that you chose not to follow your dream of opening your own little café because so many people told you that it would not work.

Censoring yourself is basically a death sentence of sorts. You literally kill off parts of your most creative self and, little by little, your self-esteem and your true self dies alongside it.

The Case of Catherine

Catherine was never a traditional girl. She played in trees, refused to wear dresses, enjoyed cars more than dolls, and would rather spend time with her father at a ballgame than anything else in the world. She was the classic “tomboy.”

When she grew older, she knew that her love of cars was going to turn into her life's work. She took auto mechanics in high school, much to the chagrin of her mother and many of her friends. She was constantly called names and often harassed in class by her male counterparts.

She persevered and decided to attend the community college in her town and major in auto/diesel repair. She faced roadblock after roadblock. Although her grades were excellent, she found that most scholarship programs denied her money because of her gender.

Some of her professors were less than happy to see her in class and did not help her as much as they helped the male students. She was determined that she would not let them win. She was determined to break the glass ceiling and follow her dreams. She was determined not to censor her life's dream to satisfy the prejudices of narrow-minded people.

Today, Catherine owns her own auto repair and parts business and employs twenty-three people, nine of whom are women. Think about the tragedy of what could have happened to her (and twenty-three others) had she censored her life for the sake of fear.