What would you do tomorrow, if you were 20 times Braver?
Think about that for a second….
If you could summon up all the courageous energy in the world, what would be the first thing that you would try to accomplish?
Would you quit your job and start your own business?
Would you phone that friend you haven’t spoken to in 8 years?
Would you take a risk on that relationship?
Would you take charge of your business and stop avoiding your activities?
Being brave is one of the most critical aspects of human existence. Growth and comfort cannot co-exist, and therefore if you want to escape mediocrity, you will have to at some point push yourself outside of your comfort zones.
Not everyone is born with super-hero courage, but you can always start somewhere and build up along the way.
The key is to start. Do it this week. Here’s some help:
1. Confront your fears. Own them. Call them out. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung famously said, “what you resist will persist” and those fears that you fail to own, or simply do your best to avoid, will continue to find ways of showing up and sabotaging areas of your life.
Action: Write a list of all your fears that are currently holding you back in business, in your family life, or in your personal relationships. Write as many as you need to.
2. Assess the risk. Once you can name and own your fear, it’s time to stop imagining the worst. We suffer way more pain in our own imaginations than we do in our reality. Imagination is a wonderful thing, but if left untamed, your imagination can cause you to underestimate your own value, and overestimate the consequences of taking action.
Ask yourself, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Let your fear play out. Then tame your fear by asking yourself “What would I do if that happened?”
A worst case scenario is highly unlikely in most situations, but if it were to happen to you, it probably wouldn’t kill you. Ask yourself what you would learn, how you would grow, and how you would emerge as a wiser, better version of yourself.
No experience is ever bad. It may seem like it in the moment, but the learning from every experience is always good.
If this doesn’t help, then how about re-assessing your fear from the reverse angle….
3. Assess the Risk of Doing Nothing. What would you stand to lose if you weren’t brave enough?
Imagine your life 5, 10 or 20 years from now. How do you think your life would turn out if you decided to play it safe and you never took a risk because your fears dominated your decision making?
Now ask yourself, “What’s the Best thing that could happen?”
Why focus on what could go wrong if your fears materialize, when you could focus instead on the magical life you could have if you faced your fears head on?
At the end of your life, your business, your relationship, you will be more likely to regret the risks that you didn’t take, rather than the ones that you did.
4. Take Action. Whatever it is for you, take action this week. Everything you need in order to be successful in your life, you already have. It lies within you, all that you need to do is summon up a little extra courage to take the first step.
Sadly, there is no magic potion to make your fears disappear, but I can guarantee you that once you take action, you will realise that the fear was never real.
Conquer it. Then do it again. Be brave once, and watch what happens.