Any time someone steps out of their area
of familiarity. Personal growth is the result. Why would anyone want to be
anxious by doing something they fear? Pushing through doubts makes us regret less
and builds confidence, which makes us feel more confident about ourselves.
You can choose to do one every day
or one a month. It’s whatever you wish. What’s important is that you
are setting an intention to achieve what you fear and following
through. By doing this, you will feel empowered, more confident, increase your
capacity to take risks, and you open yourself to new opportunities. Here are some lessons
to learn:
1.
Change your attitude about
fear: Think back to the
last time you did something really scary. Did it seem that scary after it
was over? That situation goes for all fear. It goes away once you’ve actually
done it. It just drifts away because the reality isn’t as scary as the
fantasy happening inside your head.
Whatever you’re thinking about doing
will be exactly the same. You’ll feel scared before doing it, but feel
better once it’s over. If you don’t do it, that fear will always be with
you. Do it now and let the fear fall away later.
2.
Distance yourself from how
crazy you think it is: One
mental trick that works well for me is to distance myself from the crazy thing
I want to do. That can help prevent you from getting too into the moment and
psyching yourself out. Approach it as if you’re another person.
See yourself as an observer of the
situation almost as if you’re watching yourself. The main idea is to just
get outside of your head and dissociate yourself from what’s going on. By
disengaging with the situation, it won’t seem as scary.
3.
Get pumped up to do it: Fear
isn’t the only feeling you’ll get when you think about trying something crazy;
it can also feel exciting. Too often the fear overrides those feelings
keeping you from actually doing it. Pump yourself up.
Get so excited that fear is diminished
in size. When you feel that exciting energy surging inside you, you’ll
get the motivation to get yourself going, and you’ll think less about the fears
you might have.
4.
Minimize thinking once
you’ve decided to do it: Fear
is an expectation of what might happen in the future if we take a certain
course of action. Because we don’t know what will happen on the scary
path, the uncertainty can feed our fears and make us envision all the potential
bad things that might happen. It’s easy to get lost in these thoughts and
psych yourself out before you even take the first step.
Train your brain to
ignore these thoughts. When you’re mind starts racing, calm it
down and get back to reality. Many of the fears you’ll focus on will be nothing
but your imagination going wild. It’s good to be aware of all the
potential dangers, but you can’t dwell on them.
5.
Scary things equal growth: Remind
yourself that the biggest moments of growth happen when you do something scary.
It’s always scariest the moment you move away from your comfort zone, and try
something completely different. Sticking to the safe and familiar will assure
that you continue to see the same results in your life.
By moving away from the norm and facing
down those fears, you’ll get places you’ve never been before. To get
somewhere you’ve never been; you have to do things you’ve never done.
6.
Start small, aim big: Let’s
say that you want to skydive. It might be too scary an idea to immediately hop
on a plane, go to 16,000 feet and parachute out. You might be jumping the gun a
little. That’s why skydiving places have a period of preparation and training
involved before you even step into a plane.
They know it’s important to build up to
that big moment. It’s okay to start off with small, steady steps to reach one
big scary goal. By taking it in small, more manageable chunks, you’ll find it’s
easier to keep pushing yourself to the end. All that matters is that
you’re moving forward to something that you ultimately want to do.
“Don’t fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place
next year as you are today.” (Anonymous)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“6
Tips to Do Crazy Things that Scare You” by Steve Bloom
·
“Do
What Scares You” (http://www.virtuesforlife.com/do-what-scares-you/)
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