Feel the fear, and do it anyway

I love the idea of being uncomfortable. 

As soon as you have to do something outside of your comfort zone, the fear kicks in. 

I believe what separates the successful from the ordinary, is their ability to work around it. Not to overcome fear, but simply to be at peace with it. 

And because I’ve been a victim of this anchor…I decided that this is it, it’s time for me to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. 

Inspired by who?

A ted talk that inspired my drive is by Jia Jiang.  

In it, he discusses his 100 days of rejection - where he makes himself do the weirdest things to overcome failure. It’s funny, and conveys such an important message. Please watch. 

And that’s ultimately where fear lies. When we want to do something fear holds us back. And it’s all to do with the idea that we’ll fail, that we’ll be rejected as the outcome. 

(See a post I made about fear of failure here.)

Method to my madness:

My methods to get used to being uncomfortable included:

1. Having a cold shower (when I REALLY didn’t want one) 

2. Bringing my bike up the train station stairs, despite my fear that people would look at me 

3. This was one I wasn’t prepared for, but Tim Ferriss’ book “4 hour work week” challenged me to… go to strangers and get their number.  –> NEED I SAY MORE. I probably dehydrated from the sweat in my palms. 

+ Many more

What I can confirm:

Every time you do the uncomfortable, it gets better. 

You realise ‘huh, what was I stressing about?’. 

You get a harder shell. You’re less fearful of the irrelevant stuff. The stuff that can’t hurt you. 

*NOTE:*

This isn’t strength to be reckless. It’s strength to do seemingly scary, yet completely harmless things. 

What helps me get through the fear?

Asking myself ‘what’s the worst case scenario?’

I find this so so effective. Because when we’re scared, we don’t break anything down. The whole concept is scary. 

We catastrophise and suddenly a seemingly ok thing gets 100% more daunting. 

So for example, I wanted to bring my bike up the stairs after getting off the train. There’d be people looking at me, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to physically do it. 

I was scared of what people would think. How I’d be perceived. Whether I would full on fail bringing that bike up. 

But that’s so insignificant. So what if people look?  If they’re feeling nice, they’d help if I was truly struggling. 

A challenge to you:

Do something you find uncomfortable. If that’s initiating small talk with a stranger, or singing in front of someone. 

Whatever it may be, feel that fear and do it anyway. 

Trust me, it sucks in the moment, but right after you’ll be thinking ‘actually, that’s really not so bad’.