Everything Worth Doing Is on The Other Side of Fear

My heart was jumping. My head was cloudy. I had my hand on the key to the ignition. I was about to start a 4-month long road trip. By myself.

The last vacation I took lasted one week.

Here I was, with all my belongings in the trunk, about to do something I was scared shitless of.

The first thirty minutes were surreal. I debated turning back. I debated cancelling the whole damn thing. But I already bought all my accomodations. There was no turning back.

Here are a few pictures I took on my journey — pictures that would never exist if I didn’t keep driving.

It goes without saying I had the most amazing four months of my life. I traveled to 23 states, drove 13,000 miles, and saw a buffalo from fifty feet away.

I Found My “Why” By Facing My Fears

I was reading Ray Dalio’s latest book, “Principles” lately, and he said that

“Pain plus reflection equals progress.”

In short, it’s painful to to face fears. For me, it was painful to go to places where I knew nobody and sleep in terrible hostel beds with no A/C.

I grew up, though. I made so many friends.

I found out my purpose on this earth is to be a bridge between two different people. I want to use the power of words to encourage those around me and bring us all together a little bit more.

I realized there’s a huge disconnect between what many perceive the world is like and what it’s ACTUALLY like.

You can only see this disconnect when you travel a little bit.

I think facing fears at all is a super straight-foward way to finding ourselves because we’re now stepping into zones we’ve never even approached before.

How could I know I’d love traveling if I never did it?

Or written?

One Quick Way To Add More “Zest” To Your Life

Tim Ferris (author of The Four Hour Workweek) prescribes going to very popular places such as a mall, etc. and just lying down on the floor for 15 seconds.

In front of everybody.

Could you IMAGINE doing that?

I’m getting sweaty palms just thinking about it.

Why does he say we should do this, though?

Because we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Only then can we truly grow.

So, the subheader here is “One Quick Way To Add More Zest To Your Life,” and thankfully I’m not going to tell you to go lay around on the floor for 15 seconds every day (you can if you want, though).

What I will tell you to do is just do one thing you’re scared of every single day. And you don’t have to go bungee jumping or something every Wednesday, but you could do something simple like ask the cashier at the grocery store how they’re doing.

I’m afraid of even doing that sometimes.

I’m an extreme introvert.

So get going with that. Doing simple acts like that will help expand your comfort zone little by little until you have much more confidence than before.

Us humans always get super scared of things — then when we do them we realize they weren't anywhere near as horrible as we thought.

Then something incredible happens — we aren’t owned by these things anymore.

Then we realize a lot of the things we’re afraid of in life are just mirages, and then you realize that so many others are afraid of these things, too.

Vlogging Terrifies Me, But I’m Doing It Anyway

Vlogging is my achilles heel in a way. I think I’m relatively good at making videos, but the idea of talking into a camera in front of other people REALLY freaks me out.

So I’ve decided to take my own advice lately and begin a daily vlog.

I started one for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that I want to proactively face my fears every single day.

Because I know facing fears and going on “adventures” is what gives life its flavor (as Ray Dalio says).

But think of it this way.. I have over 19,000 followers here on Medium currently. Writing is a fantastic way to connect with people — it’s truly my calling I believe — but video is an even better way to connect with people.

I think video is ten times more effective than writing for deep connection — and that’s because you’re actually SEEING and HEARING the person talking.

You know?

YouTube has the capability to multiply my “why” by infinity. I want to inspire others. I want to bring us all together more and put out more meaningful messages into the universe.

By facing my fears of vlogging, I’m opening myself up to the opportunity of accomplishing my “why” on a much, much bigger scale.

Which is the message of this whole article.

So, What Do You Want To Do?

Do you want to start a podcast, but are scared of interviewing people?

Do you want to start blogging, but are scared of being raw and vulnerable?

Do you want to get closer with your loved ones, but are scared to have those deeper, yet more meaningful conversations?

These are all fears I have. I’m still scared of being vulnerable in my writing. I’m still scared of interviewing people. I’m still scared of challenging myself to have more meaningful conversations, but I’ve gotten better at it.

The fear is never going to leave you.

It will certainly get easier to interview people as you do it more, but you’ll still get a rush 2–3 minutes before your scheduled time to talk with an influencer.

But after you’re done with that conversation, or that interview, or that blog post, and you see/hear the joy in people’s comments and words in response, you’ll realize you should’ve done all these things a long time ago.

Because everything that’s REALLY worth doing is on the other side of fear.

Want to get started writing online? I actually have a free 5-day email course called “Your First 1,000 Medium Followers” that will teach you how to build an audience here on Medium! Sign up for it right here. I’d love to teach you a couple things.