Punch Fear in the Face

fear-punch

Have you ever really wanted something in life - that dream job, starting your own business, taking up a new hobby completely outside your “normal” realm - and never quite stretched far enough? And then being dogged by the “what-if”s of not taking that wild leap?

I’ve got a list a mile long. Some opportunities have passed for me, while some I can still grab onto and let them take me where they may. The last three years or so have seen the cause of rather a lot of disruption in my life, stemming from a couple of bad jobs and experiences. I pitched over the edge into a pretty nasty swirl of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and crippling self-doubt. Family who refused to let me stay down, friends, renewed faith, and modern medicine have all been instrumental in finding my way back. 

One of the biggest lessons I learned was to stop (or at least reduce) negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are those niggling thoughts that most everyone is familiar with, that nasty voice in the back of your mind whispering you’re not good enough, you’re too young, you’re too old, you're not athletic, blah blah blah. Those thoughts are liars, and hold us back from our own personal awesomeness. It takes a lot of hard work and practice, to start to push back on those thoughts, and eventually silence them to let the truth shine through. 

In the last year, I’ve been blessed to be connected with an incredible woman who is my mentor and friend. Our topics cover the gamut of professional and personal development, and during our monthly phone call last week, she shared with me an absolute gem that I think needs to be shouted from the rooftops. 

FEAR. It’s what holds us back right? The fear of failure, of falling, maybe even the fear of actually succeeding. Guess what fear really is?

False

Evidence

Appearing

Real

How mind blowing is that? For me, it was like glass shattering all around me. Of course that’s what fear is! It’s our hindbrain not wanting us to get hurt, but the saber tooth tigers aren’t waiting for us in the bushes anymore. There’s different hurts out there, but fear tries to keep us from trying at all. I’ll be writing a follow-up to this post to explore how to start loosening that grip on yourself, but for now, give some thought to that acronym. What false evidence is sticking in your brain, keeping you from being your absolute rockstar best? Find it, and then start thinking about how awesome life will be without it.