Your guide to a healthier perspective of life
Part of winning is not being afraid of losing, of looking dumb, of not being “the best” at something…you have to keep pushing your limits. If you want to continue winning in life, you must always be learning and improving. You may be naturally good at certain things, but if you don’t work to improve your game, everyone around you will catch and surpass you.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Don’t let fear overcome you. Just go out and get to work.
Don’t let the fear of failing stop you. Or the fear of looking dumb. Or the fear of being outside of your comfort zone…That’s one way to make sure you never reach your goals. By never trying to do something difficult, you are guaranteeing failure. That type of failure may be less noticeable, but deep down you’ll always wonder “what if”…what if you pursued your goals? Would you be more fulfilled, happier, live a richer life with more meaning? You’ll never know if you don’t try.
Everyone experiences fear. Many times, we fear what we don’t understand. We make something out to be far worse in our minds than what it will actually be like in reality. But, usually, things aren’t as bad as we make them out to be. Most of the time, the thing we feared turns out to be just a small bump in the road, but once we’ve driven over it and experienced it a few times, we hardly even notice it.
Brave men and women still experience fear. But the difference between them and cowardly men and women is that they are willing to face their fears. They will try to conquer their fears. And they realize that most actions we take in life, even if we fail miserably, will not cause us irreparable harm. If we try something and fail, or if we look dumb, that’s part of the process of getting better. But if you never try anything at all, you’ll always be afraid.
“Worry won’t get you to where you want to go. Action is the only way…”
To me, the only potential benefit to worrying is that it might help you think of ways that things might go sideways, allowing you to plan your next move ahead of it. But if you just get good at thinking of all the angles ahead of time, putting a contingency plan in place, and then still take action, you’ll be better off.
Where people get in trouble is when they let their worries, fears, and anxiety take over. When they overthink a situation, it’s almost like they’re in quicksand and can’t move. But if they realize that many of their worries will never actually come to fruition, they’ll be better off.
Another way to think about fear is this…what do I really fear about this situation? In a worst case scenario, what is going to happen? Maybe someone will tell you no or you’ll be embarrassed. Well, get used to it. All successful people have been told “no” a lot in their lives. All successful people have had to take a chance (and often fail) to get to where they are.
Worrying is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do (there’s always something we can be worried about), but it doesn’t get you anywhere.
If you’re not good at something, stop avoiding it. Charge ahead into it!
It feels uncomfortable to be bad at something, especially when you are used to being average or above average in most things that you care about. But if you keep avoiding that which you are not good at, it will only hide your weakness for so long. Eventually that weakness will be exposed, often times in front of many people (causing even more embarrassment).
It’s best to just face your discomfort and/or your perceived weaknesses head on… Because really, why are you avoiding it if not for either fear of other peoples perceptions or your fear of being uncomfortable?