Let fear stop you from living a legendary one…
People make decisions based on a number of reasons. We get married because we love someone. We quit our job to start our own business because of passion. We’re making our own way, following our own path in the name of building a life that we can be truly happy living.
We start working out because we’re unhappy with how we look. We start working out because our Dad had a heart attack at a young age and we don’t want to suffer a similar fate. We walk up to a beautiful girl and start a conversation because in that moment, we realize that this girl – who gives you butterflies just by looking at her – is worth the risk of rejection.
Of all the reasons, the emotions, and the feelings that lead us to make decisions, fear is the one that can take hold of our lives, and end them while we’re still in the midst of what could have been something great.
Fear is more of a decision-deterant, than a decision-maker. We’re afraid of getting laughed at when we head to the gym and lift tiny weights. While other guys – who have been training for years – are throwing around weights that make ours look like two cheerios on either end of a straw.
And if, by the way, you are one of those guys who scoff’s at someone lifting, what you deem to be a small amount of weight, you’re an idiot. Let’s face it, you were there at one point. As was I, and pretty much every person that has ever walked into a gym for the first time. So stop being a douchebag, and give the guy a hand. Give him tips. Help him out. Because I’m guessing you’ve received some help along that way too – am I right?
Let’s shift the blame now to the guy who’s scared of being laughed at. I’m not one to judge, having made plenty a decision in my lifetime based on fear, but I have figured the training thing out. I was a toothpick. A weak and scrawny kid. But there came a point where I had had enough. I started training, not giving a rat’s ass what anyone thought.
It took me a while to get things right, but if I gave into fear, I wouldn’t have even resemblance of the life I have now. If that same fear is holding you back, you have to let it go. You have to decide that this fear can be conquered. That this fear is actually a good thing. It’s a motivator.
“What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fear can be a good thing too. I mentioned the Dad having a heart attack and us not wanting to share a similar fat. In that instance, fear is a good thing. No one lives in the absence of fear. But some are the master’s of their fear, while other’s are mastered by their fear.
“You block your dream when you allow your fear to be greater than your faith.” Mary Manin Morrissey
Billions of people live timid lives. I have lived a timid life in instances, and so have you. Everyone has let their fear out-battle their faith. It’s human nature to doubt.
I heard this one quote and I couldn’t have said it any better:
“Fear is faith that it won’t work out.”
You, I, and everyone else in the world have more reason to believe that with hard work and sacrifice, something will work out, than it won’t. Think about it. Not starting something, or going somewhere, or doing something is just having faith in yourself that you’re going to fail.
How many time’s a day do we do this? Hundred’s I’m guessing. We turn down opportunities – brief moments where doors are opened – because we have faith that we’ll fail.
“Courage is not the absensce of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmoon
This is something that I’ve been really working on. A lot of the time it’s hard to identify if it’s fear that’s holding you back, or reason. Often it’s because our fear makes such reasonable arguments. I’ve made a decision that if fear is holding me back – or laziness – that I do that thing no matter what it is.
If there’s big decision in my life that I need to make, where there are much easier alternatives, I’ll make the choice that scares me the most. In decisions where we face our fears, lie the room for the most growth.
That’s what life’s all about: growing. Learning. Trying new things. Pushing our boundaries and becoming legendary (as I like to put it). Life is about facing our fears.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Are you STRONG enough to conquer the PowerHowse Challenge?
Find this article helpful? Sign up below for more tips not found on the blog:
