Action in the Face of Fear By: MaxBottaro
Under: Life Coaching tagged with: face fear, fear, taking action
One will never reach distant shores,
if he chooses to remain upon the dock,
In fear his little ship of dreams
may be dashed against the rocks.
– F. Bolen.
It was my sophomore of high school. I was a shy, short, generic looking white boy. My English teacher that year-a vivacious, red haired Ms. Robertson-had assigned the class a public speaking assignment. I was horrified. I wasn’t confident in myself, and I based my self esteem solely on the consensus of others. To make things worse, Arden Fitzgerald, my high school crush, was also in the class and would be watching my presentation. I remember being extremely fearful and anxious about the assignment, all the way up to the day of the presentations. My fear was so bad that I actually considered taking the grade hit and not giving my speech. Thank god I didn’t, because after the presentation something changed in my thought process. Long story short, the speech went almost as bad as could be expected. I stuttered, missed lines, and my nervousness bled through horribly. But after I was done, my fear had miraculously melted away. I sat back down in my chair, relaxed and calm. From that day forward, I started to participate in class discussion, went to dances, and got involved with sports.
Giving a speech was pretty much the most horrifying thing I could image- I would have literally rather taken a beating or any number of other awful alternatives. The fact that I did it, and it went badly, and it was o.k. caused a bit of a personal epiphany. It made me realize how much fear was holding my back. From that point on I started talking to girls, going to dances, participating in sports, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone.
I invite you to recognize a personal fear that’s holding you back and face it. Maybe it’s changing a career path, starting a business, having a difficult conversation, going for a difficult major, getting out of an abusive relationship, joining a group, or public speaking. Living a life around fear will ultimately keep a person comfortable but unsuccessful. It is difficult to build self confidence and new skills if one continues to take easy paths around fear. Whatever the fear may be that is holding you back, I challenge you to honestly acknowledge it, and face it. You will feel better about yourself afterwards, whatever the outcome. Take life seriously, but never yourself.
Instead of ignoring weaknesses, boldly take them on headfirst. The things we spend the least time doing are usually the ones that need the most attention. We hate doing what we aren’t good at; overcoming this disdain is key to enjoying all aspects of life.
Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile… initially scared me to death.
– Betty Bender.
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