“Yesterday smiles upon me
With her no worry and her charm
Putting a blanket around reality
To keep me from harm
Yesterday yearns for me
To laugh and smile and play
To run away from all my problems
To run back to another day
Yesterday taunts me
With all her real fairy tales
Spinning and laughing
In a world where you couldn’t fail

Today spits on me
From the sparkling sunrise
To when I lay my head down
And try to close my eyes
Today spins me in circles
Taking me in one direction
And then in another
Always ending in imperfection
Today tests me
To do better than before
Always coming up and asking
For just a little bit more

Tomorrow laughs at me
For she knows what lies ahead
While I ponder and wonder
Awaiting in mortal dread
Tomorrow sticks her tongue out at me
When I have made the wrong move
So consequences are made
When she knows I can improve
Tomorrow waits for me
To craft a happily ever after
That is filled with craziness
And love and laughter”

What if you woke up tomorrow and discovered a world where you couldn’t fail? Any passion, any dream, any desire: yours. Any inkling of childhood naivety, the naivety that provoked you to chase your dreams, would slowly leak back into your veins, charging your heart to stampede forward with newfound energy. Today’s terrible troubles would be whisked away into the crowd, long forgotten from your mind, lost into the noise. And tomorrow? Tomorrow would be nothing but a summoning beam of light, a beacon suddenly illuminated in your darkness, awaiting your arrival with open arms. You would no longer be afraid to venture towards her, taking timid steps in her presence, for she would behold nothing but happiness for you.

And yet, this world is failure. Not failure itself, but the beast which operates the well-oiled machine: fear. Fear that our hands will not reach that of which we strive to do, to accomplish, to achieve, to be. Our very foundation is built off of fear, crackling and breaking under the pressure. And why? Because we let it. This beast consumes us – a beast that, in appearance, only stands about two feet tall, with blunt fangs and dull claws; yet, in our eyes, this steely creature is ten feet tall with acuminous teeth that snap at us, breathing smoke upon us, blurring our senses and clouding our heart to the point where we back down from our passions, from our dreams, from the life we desire.

What we fail to realize though is all we need to slaughter this fear is a breath. A breath just to ourselves, a breath where we stop all the nonsense, and just forget the world. A breath to lift the smoke that consumes us: from our lungs and hearts, allowing a moment to slay the beast. If we slayed this fear, killed this treacherous beast, we would find behind its mighty fortitude just one thing: a world where you cannot fail.

Natalie, Guest Writer for The Authenticity Project.