Do It Scared
Bravery is not the follow through of an action without fear, in fact it is the opposite. The fact that fear itself is present while performing the action is what in fact makes it an act of bravery. Whoever told us that fear was negative? But rather is it not just part of the process? A message and insight into our thoughts, our needs, our wants and our desires. What if fear is actually pointing us in the exact direction, we need to go in? And the difference between actualizing an idea is simply our ability to move through discomfort, recognizing fear as part of the process and allowing ourselves to feel it fully, until we are on the other side able to feel the confidence, pride, and joy that comes from doing the thing, scared.
What are you most afraid of? Is it yourself? Is it the stories you tell yourself? The way you talk to yourself? Are these voices even yours to own or were they put there by scared, critical, judgmental people? Do you notice the way you talk to yourself when you’re afraid? Do you nurture yourself and tend to yourself the way your inner child needed when she/he was afraid? Or do you berate and belittle the way maybe you were spoken to when it was actually comfort and courage you needed? Can you reparent yourself to be the voice you needed when fear itself is present in your life?
The way we talk to ourselves. The way we select our thoughts. This will determine our habits. This will determine both our failures and our successes. If we get up and try again when we fall. If we believe we are worthy of pursuing the next right action despite the fear. Or if we allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear itself.
How many times in your life have you found yourself in analysis paralysis, sedentary, thoughts spinning, not knowing where to begin? We overcomplicate what is simple. The solutions to our problems can be found in the act of beginning. Again. and Again. Get out of your head and into your body. Knowing there is no perfect solution or answer, for the idea of perfection itself is delusional; a limiting belief bound to keep us stuck in modes of procrastination as long as perfection is what we seek and the story we tell ourselves. Find the antidote to the exact fear-based story you are telling yourself. It is the action that proves the lie your brain is telling you, wrong. It is the lie the inner critic is telling you to keep you stuck. You have the power to rewrite the story and change the script. You and only you. No one is coming to save you. No one will do this work for you. No one but you can extract the fear out of your mind body spirit and soul but you. Progress over perfection. Self-love over self-hatred.
If you have a thought and it is not liberating. Guess what? It is simply not true. If it shackles you and keeps you stuck it is your amygdala , your old reptilian brain asking you to stay small and comfortable for your survival. It is amazing how much we have evolved, how educated we are about the brain, the body, trauma, mindfulness, mental heath, etc yet somehow the more educated we become the more we can justify our ability to keep ourselves small.
What if we took those justifications and excuses and instead turned them into compassion, understanding, and data that proved we are possible, it is all possible. Yes trauma, incredibly high ace scores, all of the things are more than enough reason to not fulfill your dreams, to not pursue your highest self, to not be your healthiest happiest version of you. Yes if we are looking for it we can undoubtedly find the exact rational for why we are the way we are. But is that the story you want to tell? Is that the shackle you want to bind yourself to? Or is it time to write a new story? Is it time to do it scared? What are you avoiding? The hard conversation that is soaked in your truth and your freedom. Have it. The habit you know gets you closer to who you want to be and further from who you don’t. Begin it. The book you want to write. The relationship you want to fully commit to or leave. The job, the move. Decide. Life is a series of choices. Of actionable steps. If you decide today to do it scared, who will you become? Can you remain unattached to outcomes knowing that every trajectory on your journey is exactly what, when where, and how it is supposed to transpire? There is no right or wrong choice, there is simply the action of beginning by making one, scared.
Nameslay,
Karissa K.
