How to Overcome Fear to Experience Great Power...All in Under One Minute!
The other day I found myself a tad jet-lagged from flying into the Midwest for the holidays (since I didn't want to be alone this particular Thanksgiving). My daughter Brie wanted to go to some type of "jumpy house" so we ended up an indoor trampoline park where she could jump to her little heart's content.
Within about an hour she wanted a drink so I handed her a $20 bill and gestured her toward a concession window that was about 20 feet away. I didn't want to move. My head hurt from the blasting music of the joint and I didn't feel like getting up.
At first she was hesitant. She didn't want to order anything by herself. But then I told her to get anything she wanted...anything $20 could buy, that is. Otherwise, she would get nothing because I refused to get up.
Hesitantly, she went up to the window but seamlessly ordered an Icee, threw the change on the table and after a couple of guzzles went off to go jumping again. She quickly overcame her fear of doing something so "adult" on her own like that. My motto is that the earlier these kids get to do these mundane things -- ordering, buying stuff, paying bills, taking care of business, etc. -- the better off they'll be. Ideally she'll become a little more self-reliant than the rest of her Millennial counterparts running around on the planet.
She came back to the table about 30 minutes later, stated that she was hungry, and then asked if she could go get something at the concession window again. By herself. I said, "Sure." And gave her some money again.
This time, instead of bringing back one single thing, she brought back several things (most of which I wouldn't have approved of such as cookies and the like) because she had just realized something: power. She had the power of independence, even for that short moment. And instead of being fearful of it as she started off, she now embraced the full power of it.
And ended up buying everything she wanted.
Now she'll never be afraid again to take some cash to go buy something on her own. For an 8-year-old, this is a pretty empowering and liberating moment that does, in fact, define a huge sense of independence. Perhaps for her for the first time in her short life so far.
I think of the things that we, as adults, are fearful of. Small things that still seem so large and insurmountable that, in some cases, are no more difficult than overcoming the fear in a way that I described above.
How long have many of us sat around, talking ourselves OUT of the things we've always wanted to do, for a variety of reasons that are really invalid if we further analyzed these reasons? Probably many of us much of the time. Only you and I have the power to decide that we're simply not going to choose to allow these minimal fears to control what we don't do from this point further.
Because look at the facts here. We have another year barreling down upon us and, if you're like me, you're wondering where the hell most of this year went. I feel like I vaguely remember the spring, some stuff I did in the summer, and now it's Thanksgiving and I'm wondering... "What the hell happened to the rest of this year?"
Yes, my friend, it's gone. Another year on the books. Another year down. And I can bet that this is another year that you didn't accomplish what you intended or wanted. You feel like you've wasted a lot of time. But now we have 2017 to be another year that, perhaps, we can make as OUR year to finally do it. To finally get that fire under our asses and to become the successes we've been talking about, right?
But how many years have gone by where you've been making this SAME EXACT promise? Yet nothing has ever changed year after year!
Time to put a stop to the fear, the madness, the procrastination and the excuses. You either have to man (or woman) up and just admit that you don't want X dream anymore...whatever your dream or dreams may be. And just resolve to be happy in the life you are in now...until you die. (If this is good for you then maybe letting go of your dreams is the best thing.)
Or the alternative...
Finally say, "Enough is enough. Let's stop making excuses and let's do this f****** thing already!"
The choice, as always, is YOURS to make.
See you at the top!
Your mentor,
Monica Main
