Overcoming my Fears!!

Recently, It has been a while that I haven’t pen down something. Well, there is no better day than today to start it again!! ?Because a great personality said, “don’t count days, make the day count”.?If you find the content familiar, yes there might be certain inspired quotes in the narration that I might have used. I’m not perfect yet, but I will get to their soon ??

Early stages of my professional life, I was always fearless. With full of energy, enthusiasm and a frontline solider at a war zone. As they say “ignorance is bliss” if you don’t know the depth of reality, you enjoy taking up the risk. But soon or later you will realize that this phase has both positive and negative connotation depending on how you’re seeing the situation. ?Unfortunately, Life will push you down to an extent where you will have to start from the beginner’s line, and then you suddenly start understanding the concept of failure in depth and that’s when fear takes it first step. Taaadaaaannn!!!!!

And that fear of failure ranks right next to the fear of losing the loved ones. In fact, the fear of failure seeps so deep in the minds that it infects our enthusiasm and self-belief so severely, that we will stop taking the risk in retreat than success by trying. One of my mentors said in a very polished way “If you don’t take massive action now, your fear of failure will soon become a reality” and that proved to be true for life.

My recent trip to Lakshadweep was journey towards finding greatness within and a life-changing odyssey. I signed up for the trip anticipating that a four-day program will get me a sticker called “certified scuba driver “from one of the world largest scuba training institutes called “PADI”.

It is the first time, I have landed on an island, the view from the window seat of Agata island was so mesmerizing that my passion to dive was mounting. I felt the same way when I proposed my girlfriend for the first time, and I felt it again when I was about to join my first job!! Phewww, same feeling after a decade and half!! I said myself – it is going to be a great adventure!! Finding greatness in your daily choices!!

Practice session started in shallow waters with fully equipped scuba gear including fins like those of mermaids, before we started our dive into shallow waters, our scuba coach said that If you have come till here, then you will go back learning something new in your life – that boosted me up to a level where I thought I won gold medal against a WWE star and It immediately reflected to a work place, Our presence at our job is evidence of our ability to succeed and deliver results. Just like that coach, my boss wouldn’t have hired me to fail... whether it is the scuba coach or a client partner at workplace, they have one thing in common, they have more stakes in our victory than just us. So they will ensure we are successful by any means. because, They are successful, only when we are ?? so why fear!!

When we started off the program, our coach held a mid-water instruction and it started to sound alien to me as waves started to push us frantically and the motivation disappeared magically to the heat of sunlight. Until the sky dramatically echoed “When fear seeps into your heart, kill it with massive action”, isn’t it so true that we give fears more time than they deserve. Contemplation causes fear to grow. The more time you give it, the stronger it becomes. Then, I remembered the conversation I had as an intern with one of my seniors who told me during my panic attacks. He said “when you feel low, make another client call, go out for another meeting, send out another email. For every signal of fear combat it with action”. That was so true for me, for that day, for that situation, I will have to combat my fear with an action, I pulled my face mask down, took a deep breath and followed the coach instruction and dived into the waters to settle down at 20ft just to realize how beautiful the world is inside the ocean.

On the second day, when we must do 40ft inside the ocean, it was a mixed emotion. Although it legitimately sounds like purpose and practice are the best antidotes for fear. We sometimes miss every bit of the concept to keep ourselves calm, I allowed the sound of ocean waves to control my thoughts and to keep myself calm and focus on the goal. When the time for performance is due, all we need is our purpose to guide us and not our fears to grind us. Ones when I lost my patience over a silly escalation in office, my boss took me for a coffee break and told, actions taken during destressed mindset could set you back by years and recovering from its impact sometimes takes away a lifetime, that shook me for months. Ever since I practiced controlling myself by keeping calm and continued to coach my mentees in a similar way. We as a team greatly excel at what we do today, just like how we ended up the diving with great satisfaction.

60ft deep ocean dive on the final day, imagine life inside ocean with those sea animals, corals, under ocean waves pulling you right to left and left to right. At the same time, after knowing that we will have to control Buoyancy, check our oxygen tank pressure, hand signal language and suffocation of head mask, urge to breath normal, all these requires a great passion to accomplish the dive. Motivation & encouragement is something which I have done so well for others but missed doing it for myself that day. “Daar ke Aage Jeet hai” shouted my boss and stood tall to sky and said I will do the first dive!! That reclaims me that we should sometime put an end to our fake helplessness aside and take responsibility of our life and create a worthwhile mission. I stood up and dived into the ocean without any second thought. Fear is a powerful emotion said my grandfather ones, I never understood what he meant that day. But after my dive, while going back, it busted my mind “fear is fuel” If you can harness fear to fuel your practice and passion, it will push you far beyond what you think is possible. I smiled myself and looked at sky as if my grandfather is smiling at me back.

Borrow confidence if you must, but don’t bow to your fears was my lesson on this trip!!

Yes, I have cleared the certification and now a certified diver by PADI.

Thank you

Sharath Ankaraju