Facing Fears
Hello friends!
My apologies for not posting for an entire week!
Busy days at work leave me exhausted, and to be honest, I’ve been struggling to decide what to write about.
A bit of writer’s block, one might put it.
But, I decided to write about something a bit more personal.
Fear has been a real thought on my mind recently.
Photo credit: Ryan Cooper
For those of you who don’t know, my biggest fear is living a boring life.
One that is not filled with adventure, living out of my comfort zone, constant challenges.
With this fear, it has been a HUGE challenge to move to Northern Idaho and feel like I am settling down.
I have a good career, a steady income, a home with my own furniture, a TV, some inkling of a daily schedule. And this terrifies me.
Where is the unknown?
Where is the adventure?
How do I still live with new and fun challenges even with a semi-normal job and a settled life?
Now, some of you might say that I totally do this still!
I go on trips, camp, hike in new places, basically keep myself entertained pretty well.
But I’m a giant busy body. Needing constant movement and excitement (thanks mom).
That was part of the reason that I made this blog: to keep me doing things and challenging myself.
And it has worked! I keep myself busy, take photos, tell stories.
I even have a 3-week long trip to Thailand planned for January!
What I’m getting at, is that fear can be an invaluable tool for success and achievement.
I am talking about any kind of fear.
Fear of change.
Fear of commitment.
Fear of being new.
Fear of being an outcast.
Fear of failure.
Fear of loss.
These are just some of the fears that I have felt over the past couple of years, and there is no diminishing for any fears felt- big or small. They are all real. All scary.
The key is what you do with the fear you feel.
Do you lean into it? Or do you run away?
Cliche, right?
But it’s true! I have found that the more that I lean into the fear that I’m feeling, the higher the pay-offs, the more I benefit with my goals in life.
I haven’t quite found the reasoning behind this.
Bravery is a strange thing, and can be represented by any sort of action or non-action.
So, how do you reach bravery? How do you get there?
I believe that there is no one way to do that.
HOWEVER, my feelings are that it is all in your head. You hold the key to change your perspective.
Think of the fear as being excitement instead of worry.
Opportunity instead of dreaded change.
Having this growth mindset can be life-changing in overcoming fears, but it is not an easy mindset to achieve.
Here are some of my recommendations on how to achieve this mindset and lean into fear (be warned, I am not perfect at this and am still constantly working on it):
Every time you feel fear toward things in your life, identify that you are feeling fear and make mental changes to view the fear as excitement and opportunity.
Meditate on the feeling of fear and find comfort in the fear. Finding comfort in feeling uncomfortable can help you lean into the fear.
Make a pros and cons list. This might sound silly, but more often than not, the pros will outweigh the cons when deciding on a new, big change. Realizing that the cons might be related to fear and may not be actual cons can be helpful when making these decisions. Then try to not make your decisions based on fear.
Alter your mindset to be excited about fear in general. Enjoy the feeling of being in the unknown!
These tips will take time to get used to, but they have been effective for me in facing the change in the past few years.
Be patient with yourself; good things take time.
Cheers,
Rach
