When was the last time you did something that totally scared you?
It’s often said to do one thing a day that scares you. Whether it’s been a year or a day since you did something that scared you a little bit, you have to look at how scared you are as a reflection of how much you’re pushing yourself.
Fear can be tough. And it can be really loud. Most fear that we experience has nothing to do with actually life-threatening situations. Only you, nowever, can know the difference between what’s safety fear and what’s anxiety fear. We encourage you to pay attention, however. Some fear is instinctual, some fear we learn from society, and some fear is taught to us by those who intentionally or subconsciously showed us to fear those things. Knowing where your fear comes from will make it easier to move beyond it.
Many of us get fear when we’re expanding into new and unknown chapters of our lives. This is totally normal. But what we must do is reframe fear to be something that is simply friction. It’s something we can hear without listening. Fear isn’t a bad thing. It’s only detrimental when we let it run our show. And fear is also something that will never go away, we simply become better at operating alongside it.
Oftentimes a great way to act despite the fear is by bringing far into the light. Calling it out is helpful. Fear loses it’s powerful when we know it’s there and why. For example, Think about something you’re scared to do. Now to get at why you’re really scared, ask yourself “Why am I scared about that.” then take that answer, and ask yourself why again. And then take that answer and ask yourself why one last time. You’re asking yourself why three times in order to get at the real reason you’re so scared. You might realize that you’re scared because of something you learned to be scared of, or something you were taught to be scared of, or something that simply and instinctually you feel fear around.
So this week, if you haven’t done something that’s scared you in awhile, we encourage you to think about what it is that you really want to do, and why you’re scared of it. Do this exercise of asking yourself WHY three times and see if you can get at the heart of your fear. Once you shine a light on the fear, it should get a little bit easier to act alongside of it instead of being stopped because of it.
