Fear is at the root of every personal development and peak
performance methodology. It is the most primal of emotions and the wall
that stands in the way of taking action.
So why would anyone want to make fear a habit?
Because fear is misunderstood. It is not your enemy. Fear is in fact
your best friend on your journey to success. Every time you take that
step outside your comfort zone, rest assured, fear, your faithful
companion, will be by your side. Fear is nothing more than excitement
with a touch of caution.
As long as you choose to keep growing in life, it will require some
degree of risk. Growth cannot occur without change or risk. And with
risk comes fear. It is only natural to experience fear when you do
something new. It lives within us because it serves a purpose. Not only
does it keep us alive, but almost always, it also makes us come alive.
More than likely, you don’t feel fear before sitting down to watch a
movie, but signing up for your first marathon, on the other hand, that
may just cause your heart to skip a few beats.
Fear lets you know when you are about to do something grand.
The problem is that from a young age we are told that fear is for the
weak. We are told to prevent it from ever entering our hearts and
minds. But the more we resist it, the more it will persist. By trying to
control it, we give it power over us, and that is when we find
ourselves paralyzed by it.
Should we simply be with it and embrace it, it will help guide us as we navigate our way into the unforgiving unknown.
Cave diving is often considered the most dangerous sports in the
world. There is no room for error. If something goes wrong, you can’t
just swim to the surface. Underwater caves have been transformed into a
tomb for many excellent divers.
Jill Heinerth is a master at the art and has dived more caves than
any woman in history. She is also the first person to dive into an
iceberg cave in Antarctica. Considering her level of experience, she
still feels fear on every one of her dives. Fear keeps her alive by
breeding a healthy respect for the hostile environment she regularly
explores.
Making fear a habit
NASA conducted a study where a group of astronauts wore convex
goggles that made everything look upside down. They were required to
wear these goggles for every minute of the day for a period of 30 days.
The purpose of the study was to determine how these astronauts would
cope with life in an anti-gravity environment. What they did not expect
to find was that after 25 to 30 days, even with the convex goggles on,
every astronaut started to see the world the right way up again. Their
brains created new neural pathways that flipped the image coming into
the eye to help them function with optimal efficiency.
In a second study, NASA had half the astronauts in the group take the
goggles off for one full day after 15 days of wearing them. They found
that it then took another 25-30 days for their brains to flip the image.
To condition a new habit to the point where your brain has created a
new neural pathway for that habit takes an uninterrupted period of 30
days.
How to shift your relationship with fear
Every single day for the next 30 days, do something that scares you.
No matter how small or large. That may sound challenging, especially if
you have a comfort zone that extends far beyond the average persons, but
even with a certain degree of comfort for the unknown, it isn’t too
difficult to find something that makes the butterflies in your stomach
go wild.
In my 28 years, I have been skydiving, cave diving, ice diving, I
have spent 7 months in a war zone with the US Marines, climbed mountains
all over the world, climbed vertical cliffs without the safety of a
rope, started two businesses and spoken on a stage at a fortune 100
company.
On more than one occasion, someone has asked me how I developed a no
fear attitude. I always tell them that I was and continue to be afraid
every single time I try something new, and even when I am doing
something that initially scared me more than once.
While driving to the drop zone for my seventh skydive, I was
terrified. During the hour and a half drive, I spent most of the time
almost hoping it would rain so I would not have to jump. Fortunately, it
did not rain and I made the jump.
Without giving it a second thought I walked back to the drop zone,
grabbed a new parachute and got back on the plane for my eighth dive.
Each step into fear builds confidence to tackle new challenges and
set higher goals. Fear has always been the precursor to possibility.
But even with an expanded comfort zone, I continue to find activities that scare me.
I still get nervous even when speaking in front of a small group at a
toastmasters meeting or when I am about to start an insane workout that
will leave me drenched in sweat.
Planning out your 30 day journey into fear
No matter how much life you have experienced, plan out 30 activities
that make you a little nervous and spend the next 30 days engaging in
one of them every day.
These could be speaking in front of a group, trying something new
that you may not be good at, taking dance classes, working out, eating
something that you ordinarily would not, the list is endless.
Or you can even devote an entire month to one single terrifying
expedition. I did this in May of last year when I spent 28 days skiing
across the second largest icecap in the world in Greenland. In
temperatures as low as -40 degrees, I dragged a 190-pound sled for 350
miles. I had to get very comfortable with fear during that month.
You can also spend 30 days traveling to new countries that push you
outside your comfort zone. Or you can do what one of my friends did. She
turned her training regimen into a fun game by pretending to swim
across the English Channel. Every day, she devoted hours to swimming a
certain number of miles and symbolically complete this expedition in
less than a month.
Use your imagination to create ways to interact with fear that are in
line with your life goals and passions. Whatever method you choose, the
point of this exercise is to commit to engaging with fear for one whole
month.
At the end of the month, you will have grown in leaps and bounds
emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually.
By conditioning the
fires of the human spirit that lives within you, it will become
undeniably clear that the human potential is truly infinite.
The only thing standing in the way of you creating the life of your
dreams is not fear, it is your relationship to fear. Create a new
relationship by making fear a constant companion on your journey and you
will find within you the courage to embark upon any voyage into the
unknown, no matter how stormy the seas or dark the skies.
For as Meg Cabot said, “courage is not the absence of fear, but
rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.”
Cultivating the habit of fear is in fact cultivating the habit of
courage and strengthening the muscle to move forward despite it.
What will you do for the next 30 days of your life?
0 Comments: