In this vlog entry recorded on July 28, 2024, Danielle Bancart reflects on the nature of doubt, fear, and anxiety, arguing that these emotions are merely labels we assign to internal sensations rather than intrinsic truths. She recounts a personal breakthrough from ten years ago where she decided to stop attributing meaning to these labels, allowing her to harness her energy for productive action. Throughout the day she works on her novel rewrite, plans to study French for an upcoming exam, and prepares for a short overnight trip to Lille to watch the USA women's basketball team play Japan. She shares a brief update on her progress—spending 45 minutes on her novel, noting the hot weather, and expressing concern for Olympic athletes competing outdoors. Danielle invites viewers to share their own project updates as part of her 30‑day series, emphasizing community engagement and the ongoing practice of ignoring unhelpful doubt.
Chapters
It is day 21 and I have some thoughts, but let me make myself presentable first. It is July 28th, 2024. Le 28 juillet. Bonjour, je suis Danielle Bancart, and I have a very busy few days coming up starting today, but I'm not going to let that stop me from working on my novel, from practicing my French for the exam, and doing a couple of other business-related things today. I also want to talk about doubt. Doubt. And the reason this has come up is because I have had a lot lately, especially in the last 48 hours, of what we would call doubt going through my mind. And what I have come to see about doubt or fear or anything else is that it's not really doubt. It isn't really. That is simply a label that we have put onto certain feelings and thoughts that we have. And this has been extraordinarily helpful to me to realize this, because I used to give a lot of credence to thoughts and feelings like doubt and fear and anxiety or whatever else. And in recent years, I've just recognized the fact that those are not actually the things that we call them. They are simply a sensation or some sort of— I don't even know what the word is. Something happens within us, and we have learned to label that certain something that happens within us in this way of doubt or fear or whatever it may be. And so, like, this morning I woke up feeling what I would normally call doubt and even some anxiety and even some quote-unquote fear. All those those things that I normally would have labeled that way. And I just thought it was sort of interesting. I kind of looked at it and went, oh, that's fascinating that I'm having these sensations and I have labeled these in a certain way, and so therefore they look a certain way to me, and therefore it looks like I should be paying attention to what they're trying to tell me, like maybe I should stop working on this novel rewrite, or maybe I should stop trying to become a permanent resident and citizen here in France, or maybe I should stop going in this new business direction that I really want to go in, you know, all of these things. I sat back and instead was like, oh, that's really interesting. Okay, so what am I doing today? I just kind of got on with it. That is really what occurred to me 10 years ago this month, was that I don't have to pay attention to any of that stuff because it doesn't have any intrinsic meaning. It only has any meaning because we collectively have decided that it has some sort of meaning. And if I don't ascribe that meaning to those sensations that are coming through me, I can just get on with it. I remember exactly my thought 10 years ago was, oh, if I don't have to worry about all of these thoughts and feelings anymore, then I can just harness this power that is coursing through me and you all the time and go do something with it. So that's what I'm doing today and every day. So I am going to get on with my day. Really briefly, today I am working on things, as I mentioned, and also getting ready to take a very quick trip tomorrow to Lille where my husband and I are going to watch the women basketball players, the Team USA, play Japan. We will stay in Lille overnight because the game ends late. It was— it starts at like 9, so there were no trains coming back. And then we will come back on Tuesday I will still post videos though. I don't know what they'll be of or where exactly I will be when I make them, but you can follow along. And I also want you to come back to this video in a moment and we will see what I actually did today. Shall we? Was I successful in ignoring doubt and fear and all those things? And did I actually activate something in myself and produce something? Let's find out. It is getting very, very hot here. I feel really badly for the athletes in the Olympics who are going to have to compete outdoors in this heat over these next few days. On my side, I managed to spend about 45 minutes working on my novel rewrite. I didn't do any French study yet. I think I may sit down and do some of that maybe in an hour or so. It's about 3:30 here, and I just feel the need to kind of take a breather and collect my thoughts. I also still need to pack for this little overnight trip to Lille to see the women's basketball game. And I have been thinking some more about what I started this video with, which is the whole idea of what doubt actually is. And I wanted to share with you that I have had this swirling feeling that I would normally have labeled doubt all day long, literally all day long, to the point where I started to wonder if it was ever going to leave me. And as I'm talking to you, it has. It's not really that present anymore, and I didn't really let it bother me because why should I? We're supposed to have all of these thoughts and feelings. There's nothing wrong with any of them. And that was what I discovered 10 years ago, was there was nothing wrong with any thought or feeling that I had. It didn't mean that there was something wrong with me. It didn't mean that there was something I needed to do that was some sort of solution to an emotion or a thought. Like, I didn't have to go in that direction ever again. And so that whole change— it was a real sea change for me— has really shifted the way that I see myself, the way that I do things in my life without so much trepidation all the time. And so I would love to hear what you think about that, and please feel free to share your progress on any projects you're working on along with me during this 30 days, and I will catch up with you tomorrow. A bientôt!
