Do Something That Scares You

You’ll Thank Yourself Later

I’ve seen this piece of advice more times than I can count.

After years of reading it in blogs, books, and articles, I’ve realized something important:

Doing something that scares you only helps if that something is related to a personal goal.

As usual, let me explain what I mean.

Personally, I’ve been focused on becoming a better writer and speaker. At this point, pushing the “Publish” button doesn’t scare me anymore.

You know what does?

Standing in front of a crowd of people and sharing what I know.

This is why I decided to give my first writing workshop earlier this month:

I did this because I desperately want people to take me seriously and find value in what I have to share. The idea of conducting my own workshop and having people tell me I’m full of shit scares the shit out of me.

And this is exactly why I knew I had to follow through with the workshop.

You know what I could have done instead?

Gone bungee jumping.

This is definitely something I’m afraid of. It’s not a paralyzing fear, but I whenever I’m more than 20 feet off the ground, my hands start to sweat and I definitely start to shake a little.

This type of fear wouldn’t have helped me become a better writer or speaker. In this case, context makes a BIG difference.

Like most thing in life, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought.

As always, the anticipation was much worse than the actual event. Once we got into the meat of the workshop, it was amazing.

I paused for a moment while people were giving each other feedback on their writing. People from all ages and different backgrounds were working together toward a common goal: to become better writers.

This moment was well worth being scared. In fact, I would go through the fear of fucking up 100 times over just to witness this moment again.

I’ve realized something invaluable:

These moments are what take you to the next level in life, and you don’t get these moments without experiencing the fear.

Don’t wait. Take time to identify these moments now.

For me, I need to experience more moments where others connect over shared ideas, which means I need to facilitate these moments.

What moments are worth your fear?

What are you working on that scares you? What have you learned so far? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter at @williamfrazr.

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