Get Out of Your Own Way – A Post on Fear

Fear, that unpleasant feeling caused by the perception of danger, is part of the human experience and is felt by everyone, in various forms. Yes, everyone. Fear poisons the mind, allowing the worst of us to be exposed and keeping us from our goals. I have spent a large portion of my adult life overcoming fear, and for every success there will be a new challenge and the struggle will continue. The purpose of this post is to face my current fear head on and conquer it. I believe that fear hides in the dark and is easier to squelch when exposed.

I started this website and blog over a year ago in an effort to clarify my knowledge and root out inconsistencies in my thought process. After a lot of research, and even more YouTube breaks, I learned how to build a website, acquire hosting, design a logo, and create a home for my writing. I wrote my first post that day in February 2014 before I left for a fitness business conference. I planned to share my experience with the conference as my first big post. I took a lot of notes, wrote a bunch of small excerpts, and then did nothing with any of it. First, I said the website I built looked like junk and I couldn’t bring myself to generate traffic to it, so I spent hours educating myself on the platform and rebuilt the page. My next excuse was that I didn’t want to put out a post if I didn’t have a pipeline in place to put out content regularly. The list of bullshit continued on for way too long.

It has now been 17 months since that original post and I’m finally ready to face what’s stopping me. I had this idea that in order for my writing to be “worth” reading, it had to offer seriously impressive content. I’m even struggling with this post – doing tons of research to find quotes and supporting information in an effort to make this a worthwhile read. No more than 30 minutes ago I came to an understanding; it isn’t the depth of the content that matters, it’s the impact that it has. If even one person reads this article and decides to challenge fear and try something new, then it was worth it. Coach Stan Dutton of TFW Boston (you can check out their blog HERE), who I interestingly enough met at the previously mentioned conference, recently gave me some advice on blogging: done is always better than perfect.

For some background, my hesitation stems from a deep fear of judgement. I have suffered from crippling social anxiety for as long as I can remember, but through therapy, consistent personal effort, self-evaluation, and excellent friends, I’ve nearly conquered it in my personal and professional life. It would seem, however, that my mind considers putting something online for the entire world to see and judge as different than in person and it is causing me a whole new level of stress. I absolutely SUCK at being vulnerable. A benefit of all the work I’ve put into personal growth is the ability to self assess. It took me a long time but I recognized that I was hesitating and avoiding moving forward on something I want for myself. The time for action is now.

Quick Steps to Overcome Fear:

  1. Self-assessment: recognize that you are getting in your own way
  2. Expose your fear
  3. Reach out to those who have been successful doing what you are afraid of
  4. Take action IMMEDIATELY

Fear can dominate the mind and kill ambition, but it’s only as powerful as you allow it to be. I was listening to a podcast recently with the co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series when he said something I believe is very profound:

“everything you want is on the other side of fear” - Jack Canfield Click To Tweet

If anything you just read resonates with you, then my challenge to you is this: look at yourself and find a place where fear is keeping you from success. Share this fear with people close to you and take action against it. I know this is uncomfortable but being awesome (whatever your definition may be) never comes from being comfortable.

I have a big post on self myofascial release in the works and it will be out next week. Stay tuned. If you want to share your fear, your success against it, or if you have your own advice on how to overcome fear, click below and comment.

 

Become the Change,

Leor

 

Comments

comments

One Response

POST REPLY