“Fear in Motion”

You know, ever since I started this whole 100 Things I Fear craziness I’ve been so aware of when fear is holding me back.  Of course, the really cool thing about knowing when fear is getting in the way is that then I get to make a choice if I’m going to let it hold me back.  And you know what? When I consciously ask myself, “Am I going to let this stop me?” the answer is:

No! I’m not going to let fear stop me.

I’ve done so many courageous things that I’ve even impressed me.  Like yesterday, a colleague/friend asked me if I would like an introduction to a successful teen advocate and I said yes.  At the time, the voice of fear was telling me, “Why would this guy want to help you?  Just say no.  You don’t need his help.  You can do this on your own.”  I was so close to doing just that: saying no.

And then, I noticed that this was the voice of fear.  Was I going to let it stop me? NO!  And I told her to yes, please initiate the introduction.

Whew!  One fear faced with victory! And by the way, I’ve noticed a theme of fear here in asking for other successful peeps to help me.  Interesting.

Then later that night I was at a party and the karaoke machine was fired up.  I so wanted to sing.  In fact, it was me who asked them to turn it on.  But, then I freaked out. I’d never done this before.  I didn’t know the crowd very well.  What if I sounded like crap?

And then I was like, “Am I seriously going to walk away from this? Am I that concerned about looking bad that I’m not going to do this? But, I love to sing.  Who cares how I sound.  Just do it.  It’s not like these people are going to laugh and make fun of you.  Even if they did you probably won’t ever see most of them again anyhow.”

So, I picked the song I really wanted to sing (Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland) and stood up and sang.  And guess what? I rocked it out! It felt so good to get out of my own way.  It was so liberating to not allow the fear to sit my ass back down on the couch.  You know, if I didn’t sing I would have felt like crap and then probably treated my husband like crap the rest of the night.

Yup, it’s true: when you don’t face & process your own fears, you tend to treat others badly as an outlet – especially spouses! So what are you waiting for? Jump on this crazy bandwagon with me & face a 100 fears in a 100 days!

Tags: 100 Things I Fear, confidence, courage, fear, success