Do It Scared

Fear does not get to make every decision

Fear has an impressive résumé.

It can convince you not to start the business. Not to post the work. Not to leave. Not to travel. Not to apply. Not to speak. Not to try.

And the cruelest part is that fear often disguises itself as logic.

Maybe later.

I’m not ready.

What if I embarrass myself?

What if it doesn’t work?

But waiting until fear disappears is a brilliant way to wait forever.

Courage isn’t the absence of fear

Courage is action in the presence of it.

You can be terrified and still move. You can doubt yourself and still begin. You can feel your heart pounding and still press publish.

Fear doesn’t always mean stop.

Sometimes it simply means you’ve reached the edge of what is familiar.

Make fear smaller through action

You don’t always have to take one enormous leap.

Send the email. Make the appointment. Take the class. Post the first video. Walk into the room. Say the sentence. Apply for the thing.

Take one action that gives your nervous system evidence that uncertainty is survivable.

Then take another.

Eventually the life that once terrified you becomes the life you know how to live.

There are reasonable fears worth listening to, of course. Fear can alert us to genuine danger. Courage isn’t recklessness.

But when the danger is simply being seen, failing, changing or disappointing someone?

Fear doesn’t deserve the final vote.

Relax reminder:
The fall was never your ending. Sometimes it was the moment you discovered you could get back up.