In our last +1, we talked about the 11 things you’d do if you had zero fear. (How’d that go for you? :)
Today I’d like to bring my old coach Steve Chandler in to the discussion so he can share his wisdom on the subject.
In Reinventing Yourself, he encourages us to do that “If I had no fear” exercise and then he encourages us to get to work on one of them.
He tells us: “Somehow, as grown-ups, we have talked ourselves into assuming that we can’t do anything we’re afraid of doing; that being afraid to do it is the same thing as being unable to do it. But a little practice just doing it shows us that this was a false assumption. Action generates courage, not the other way around.”
Then he says: “All courageous people have fear. They just do things anyway, hollering with a combination of joy and fear, like Butch and Sundance jumping off the high cliff into the water below.
You will find, as you descend toward the water, there is a joyful rush. You’re feeling your fear while you are in action conquering it. And as you continue in action, the fear dissolves, like a fist full of salt in the river. What remains for you is pure joy. It’s the joy of being someone you were not. That’s reinvention.
You reinvent by doing things ‘you’ wouldn’t do, and in so doing you realize there is no fixed and permanent ‘you’ at all.”
Feel the fear. And the joy. Make the leap.
Now… Continue staying in action.
Notice the fear dissolving. Like a fist full of salt in the river.
And feel the joy of you being the next-best version of you.
And continue the spiraling evolution up—with fear as our signal to “GO!” not to stop.
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