the Scariest Thing
I’ve always done the things that have scared me the most. Sometimes it took awhile for me to actually do it, but I would always do it because I knew where I wanted to go. I wanted to build a business, so I did the scary things. I put myself out there even when I didn’t feel confident. I talked to people I didn’t know even though I felt intimidated. I did the research and made the phone calls. I posted content on social media even when I was scared of what other people would think. I spent money on trainings even though I wasn’t sure when or how I would recover the costs.
People have asked me how I’ve gotten to where I am now, personally, spiritually, emotionally and professionally. What I always say is that I do the things that scare me the most. We don’t get anywhere in life by merely thinking about what we want to accopmlish. We have to actually DO something, and that often means pushing through fear.
Doing the scary thing is often something we will benefit from in the long term. And knowing where we want to go doesn’t mean we won’t be afraid, but acting through the fear builds courage, strength and resiliency. We are taught to not act because of possible outcomes. We are taught to be “safe” and use caution when proceeding through life, to not take chances. We are taught to prepare for the worst, and make sure we have all the insurance!
But the fact is, anything can happen in life! We can prepare all we want, but there’s no guarantee “bad things” won’t happen or that we won’t fail. There’s no guarantee that our grand vision for life will happen how we think or even at all! In life, there’s NO guarantees that we will get what we want.
What is guaranteed, however, is that life will go on. We will continue on the path and learn along the way if we are open to the lessons. We will grow and gain wisdom. If we take risks in our lives we most likely won’t regret that we tried. Because it’s not about what we do or try to do…isn’t there a saying about when you’re on your death bed you don’t regret what you do in life, you regret what you didn’t do?
Sometimes for me the scariest things have been having difficult conversations and saying how I feel. It’s been traveling alone to places I haven’t been before. It’s been facing deep traumas and the accompanying emotions. It has been taking hard looks at myself at where I need to grow, change, heal or compromise.
Doing the things that scare me the most has not given me a fairy tale life. It’s given me deep, rich experiences that has helped me to create meaningful relationships, and a life I enjoy living. Facing the things that I’m most afraid of has given me opportunities to learn, to realize my limits, my resilience, and to see how strong and capable I am.
I believe that we are here to experience every part of life—all the hard, fun, sweet, bitter and scary things. Because, in life, we don’t often know where we are going or even how we will get there, but what we are doing along the way in each moment, in my humble opinion, is the whole point of our human existence.