How I have overcome my biggest fear?
It’s surprising to many to know that my biggest fear was to TALK WITH PEOPLE.
Yes you read it right! I always feel scared talking to strangers when I was a kid. I always want to talk to people but I am very reserved and poised by nature, having that kind of an impression about myself I assumed myself that I can’t talk to everyone easily.
When I was a kid I used to think about innovative science experiments and was so curious to try them out, but when it comes to expressing that to people it will be a pullback because of my fear.
When I was in 7th grade, my school used to conduct lot of activities to promote speaking skills. I somehow wanted to participate in these activities to experience it and get rid of my fear. I was very reluctant initially but somehow I rolled up my sleeves and started preparing for my presentation and did decently well in the first time. I understood my flaws and started to avoid them next time. I worked hard, practiced many times and in the next time I did a good job when compared to the last time.
Yaay! I gained confidence and 60% of my fear was gone and I had a feel from the bottom of my heart that I am naturally good at this . So the next time I was super focused and thought I must definitely secure a medal. The topic given to me was “Your travel experience” and I luckily at that time I have went to a place called Coorg [Karnataka] and I curated my journey experience as a story, added up some humor content and finally aced at my final presentation.
I secured a gold medal [First prize] for that presentation! That moment was priceless and 90% of my fear was gone.I got a confidence that I can literally talk to anyone in this world.
I guess I have that speaking skills in my blood itself. My father is a Marketing Manager in a private company and has 35+ years of experience in Sales & Marketing and my brother also works under the Sales department in a leading automotive components manufacturing company. My other relations also have degrees in General management, Marketing etc and work on client facing roles.
So I haven’t stopped there and tried attending lot of other activities and won several prizes. In my 11th grade teams from my school participated in a district level science exhibition, this is more of tech competition which I wanted to participate a long time. We implemented 4 different projects and we have to give demo to judges regarding that. The experiences which I had got by participating in these activities helped me to give a successful demo of the projects to the judges[Pre Sales in School ! ]
We did a fabulous job and won the first prize. 95% of my fear was gone and we again participated in a State level science exhibition and won the consolation prize.
After I joined college I continued doing such things and published a technical paper in an international journal in my very first year of college and continued doing paper presentations in National, International Conferences and other technical symposiums. My Internships helped to understand on how to talk with people in a work environment.
Still 95% of my fear was only gone. Recently I went on a trip to Hyderabad to visit my aunt and uncle. During my stay I thought of exploring the city and went on a city tour on the first day. I met a person who was traveling alone, initiated a convo and I wasn’t uncomfortable in continuing it. He was totally a stranger to me but all my experiences helped me understand on how to talk with people and by the end of the day he became a good friend to me!
Next day I made two more friends at Ramoji film city.
So 100% of my fear was gone. Now I am confident that I can talk with anyone in this world.I kind of feel happy and comfortable when I talk to people now. Most of friends say now say that Akshay is a non stop talker.
THE BIGGEST FEAR IS MY BIGGEST STRENGTH NOW!
My dad always says “Don’t ever feel yourself inferior to someone and don’t fear to talk to anyone. He may have fancy degrees, lucrative job, good looking etc but he is still a human being like you and me”. Even when you grow up and you have achieved almost everything in life just be kind and compassionate.
The thought now I have while writing the post is “You can overcome your biggest fears by developing the courage to face it”. Initially you may fail miserably but if you are smart enough to know your flaws and if you try to overcome then nothing is impossible. Still I have some other things in life which I am not comfortable doing but definitely one day I will overcome that too!
Thanks for reading. Stay Humble do good!
