Courage over Fear

The past two weeks have been very busy yet productive but most of all it has been reflective. The team and I were working on the popular ‘Project Get Naked’ project for 2021, a photo campaign for mental health awareness. Typically the project enlists a large number of famous faces and celebrities, lending their face and voice to mental health awareness but the direction for the new edition is different.

For the past editions, we’ve had over 20 celebrities be a part of each edition. However, this time we had only 13 influentials and not all of them are considered celebrities by public opinion but they are influential and impactful in their own fields. They are young, bold and vibrant. My decision to go through this route caused a key team member and me to be at loggerheads because he was keen that we should use A-listers and popular celebrities.

What he failed to realize was that I had reached out to a lot of the celebrities that I know and I had even sought after celebs that I have no personal relationship with or connection to. Besides the clash in schedules and being fully booked, what I discovered was that 2020 has been overwhelming for a lot of people, including these celebrities. Many are doing their best to stay afloat and hold on to their sanity and when it comes to being a part of this mental health project, you have to be candid with yourself and to the public. This can cause one to have an imposter syndrome.

Long and short of the story, my team member and I had a clash over how lenient I was with this edition and less aggressive in reaching out to these notables and famous faces. He talked about how I have always done more for previous editions and hauling people down to be a part of the campaign and the new one was understated. I felt bad and underachieved, I began to feel like I didn’t go the extra mile for the 2021 Project Get Naked even though it was my decision to change the direction and mix up the types of participants a little bit. I reflected on how things could have been better and that brought me to the realization that I was afraid and anxious about whether or not the project will live up to its expectations. The expectations that have been set from day 1 since we kicked off the initiative.

The disagreement between my team member/friend brought a lot into the perspective of how one sometimes has to be relentless going after what you want and what you need. It gave me the illumination of how to do things better moving forward. While I may not like the fact that my fear and my timidness was noticed and schooled by another person, it made a lot of sense that I was afraid to take courage and dream bigger. I had constricted my imaginations and goals for the project.

When all was said and done, I made a promise to myself to always give it my all in whatever I do in spite of fear. We still made a remarkable project and I can’t wait to share it with you all.