I'm starting some new ventures as well as writing an auto-biography, and let me tell you, I am really scared. It's a familiar old fear - the fear of the unknown. The more time goes by, the more I realize all my real fears boil down to fear of the unknown.

I've done some really scary things in this life (you'll enjoy reading about some of them in the book). I've been attacked by humans and wild animals (scariest was a sea turtle). I've been in vicious car wrecks. I once "drove" my car backwards uphill on the end of a tow chain through a forest. I've snowboarded down some huge mountains, blind in a blizzard. I've bungee jumped. I've gone SCUBA diving with sharks. I once snuck up on a tiger and petted it (got yelled at for that one).

All that stuff was scary, especially the first time, but social situations are even scarier. I've bluffed federal agents. I met the god-king of Tibet. I've spoken to crowds of thousands live on stage. I've presented business proposals to billionaires. I once negotiated in my swimming trunks with a man who ambushed me with a machete.

And even all that stuff pales compared to risking my identity with bold new moves to grow and change. When I started writing a book about my life, I had to ask myself what my life is all about, and what I wanted to share. Scary!! My new project, http://www.madpropits.com/, takes me into realms of new media and social networking. Scary!! Why? Because it's new. I don't know what to expect, I don't know how I'll have to grow. I don't know how I'll be changed by the experience, and where that will take me next.

Some days, it feels like it might be easier to stay in my comfortable Crocodile-Hunter-meets-James-Bond personality... or my warrior-monk persona as To-Shi protector and Buddhist disciple... or even my loving husband and proud business owner role. It's all wonderful, beautiful stuff, but it has been brought into manifest form because I kept going and growing. I kept stretching my boundaries, like our Q-guy symbol with one foot reaching into the unknown. Even the great roles I've played so far would go stale if I just settle into telling stories of the glory years.

So I grow, and I am afraid. It amazes me that the fear of growth and change never wears off. I have to take a deep breath and remember that I am fundamentally smart and strong, and I can stop and rest anytime I need to. The successes become confidence and the failures becomes understanding, all fueling the next chapter. And so, it will work out.

Deep breath in, and then, onward.