“Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.” – Bill Cosby
Could facing your fears really be that easy? In most cases, I say YES loud and clear.
There is nothing that keeps us stuck more than fear. It can be paralyzing both physically and emotionally.
Believe it or not there was a time that I was so afraid to speak in front of a group that I had to hire people to do it for me. I would literally make myself sick. Talk about NOT practicing what you preach.
When my father died, I wrote part of the eulogy – for my sister to read at his funeral. I couldn’t do it, even for him, the man that constantly told me,“If you want to get anywhere in life, you have to stick your neck out”. (After all, he was a turtle.)
When my son was a little boy (ok, he’ll always be my little boy). Seriously, when he was 11, I took on the role of Pack Master for his school district. That meant I had to speak to over 100 parents on a regular basis. Nope! Not me. I coerced one of my friends to partner with me. I did the writing and she did the speaking! It was a great plan until she got sick. With trembling knees I stepped up to the podium and read my speech. Guess what – it was warmly welcomed. I didn’t die, no one laughed at me, well maybe a little, I didn’t trip and fall; I’m still here to write about it.
Hindsight is a great teacher. What I realized was that I had been facing fears my whole life – MY WHOLE LIFE! When you think about it, I bet you have too. We all have a story around fear.
After that night, I made a list of all the ways I had stepped up to fear in the past. Some were big fears, and some were little fears. Here’s what part of my list looked like, and here’s what I did:
- Fear of dogs after being bitten more than once – I have 2 dogs, really big dogs
- Fear of being alone – I spend time alone – a lot
- Fear of change – I embrace it
- Fear of speaking – I host a radio show and give motivational speeches before hundreds of people
- Fear of sobriety – I don’t drink (maybe that should be facing my demons)
There’s a lot more where that came from. You get the picture. Sometimes I take giant steps, and sometimes I take baby steps – I keep stepping into them and come out shining on the other side.
So when I read that quote from Bill Cosby, I shook my head up and down with a resounding YES.
Almost everything we do begins with a choice. Simple as it sounds, you can choose to step past your fear and step into your greatness.
May I suggest you begin by imagining yourself as Gandalf the White Wizard – tell your fear “Thou shall not pass!”
Have you experienced events in your life that are so horrible that you believe you’re broken beyond repair? Do you think that you can never live a ”normal” life, let alone a life of happiness and success? Erika Gilchrist has been there and she’s on a mission to show you how you too can move beyond those events and become truly unstoppable!
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