Step Up and Fear Less!

I’m a confident guy. It is just in my makeup. Ever since I can remember, I have just seen an obstacle as an opportunity to better myself. We started Big Sky Enterprises with two kids under the age of one, zero projects in the pipeline, and only $5K in the bank. 

Did I have setbacks? Did I screw up? Absolutely! 

Did I have fear? Absolutely. 

But did I let that fear paralyze me? Absolutely not. I took every challenge as an opportunity, and each success made me more resilient. 

Am I fearless? Of course not. No one is truly fearless. I will never be FEARLESS. I just am determined to FEAR LESS.  

We all have this ability. It just means changing your mindset. And, yes, I agree, it won’t happen overnight. But, I do not agree if you assume you can’t do this as well. You can. Fearing Less is a mindset and a choice for you to make. 

I just gave three cases of when I have moved up through my fear. There is zero reason you cannot do the same.

You will never become truly fearless. We all must strive, instead, to fear less. 

Success is going from failure to failure, without losing enthusiasm. -- Winston Churchill. Wow, the benefits of failing changed the course of humanity forever! Maybe you won’t change the world fearing less, but you could dramatically alter your own personal path. It means embracing failure. For that’s what all of your fear is about, right? You may be afraid to try because you are afraid you may fail. So what if you fail! Just get back up. 

People who fear less don’t think about falling. They think about standing. They don’t think about losing. They think about winning. They don’t think of failure. They think of success. And, over time, the more that they see that this mindset has completely elevated them, the more concrete evidence they have that it works. So, they continue to deepen their resolution. They become more resilient. They start to change their mindset.

Fear may be something that we all have to deal with, but coming from a “fear-based mentality” is something that we are taught. It may have been taught to you from your family. It may have been from teachers or coaches when you were young. It may have been from other kids in your neighborhood. Somewhere along the way you may have been taught a fear-based way of thinking. That causes moments of hesitation or doubt, as you are preparing for a potential failure. And, chances are, it was taught to you by people who were afraid themself. Turn off that noise! It is up to you now to take control of your own mindset. It’s time to start fearing less .

I am going to remind you that you once had a fearing less existence before being influenced by others. That fearing less is in your deep genetic code.

How? Well, one of many examples is how you taught yourself to walk. Think about it. There was no reason for you as an infant to push yourself to stand up and bravely change your *entire perspective*. Suddenly you had an entirely new center of gravity. You were even looking at things from a brand new, higher, disorienting vantage point. You used two feet without the more safe addition of two hands. You pushed yourself up with your hands, while trying to get your legs under your, and then you fell  forward or backward. Then you kept trying over and over again. Not once thinking, if I stand up my head will be farther from the ground so if I fall I could split open my head. No, you told yourself in your basic communication internally, if I can stand and walk, I can get from point a to point b quicker. I reach more things, some that mom and dad don’t want me to touch. I can get what I want. 

Why did you all do this? Because you had a determination. You wanted something. You had a purpose. Your life had a meaning. (I want to touch that vase over there!)  Did you have fear of  the unknown? Heck yes! Of course you had massive fear that first time standing up and walking! But the end result was far more important. 

If you are facing something for the first time, of course it’s normal to feel fear. Just don’t let it stop you.

How is anything different now? In fact, it should be *easier* now to live a fearless life because you now have years of experience and maturity!

Not sure you have the ability to really push through fear anymore? Look back at what you HAVE accomplished! What did it take to accomplish those goals? Remember what you did to get what you wanted. You didn’t psyche yourself out mentally. You didn’t take on other people’s comments that You Can’t and instead just firmly with determination said I WILL. And, you did. These memories will help strengthen your confidence, and before you know it you’re fearing less. Just about everything that you have accomplished in your lifetime you knew nothing about before you started. You kept trying over and over again. Remember how many times you have bravely pushed through fear.

We don’t live without fear; we live with fear. It’s the human condition. The goal is to live with less of it. 

I challenge you to have more faith and hope in yourself and your abilities than you ever have before.

Are you going to fail on this new fear less path? Absolutely. Do you think an infant just gets up and walks when they want to? No! How many attempts does it take to stand up on their own two feet? And once there, how many tries does it take to walk across the room without help. 10? 20? 100? Do they stop? No. Remember that was you years ago. Did YOU stop back then? No you didn’t. Don’t stop now. 

 Remember, you have evidence you have persevered and feared less in the past. You need to remember this daily, consciously. This will change your mindset. 

Just about everything you have accomplished in your lifetime you knew nothing about before you started. Here is your evidence you have done it before, many times. You need to remember these times to work that confidence muscle just like any other you exercise. The more you remember how you achieved success fearing less, the more your mindset will shift to success only. You will become more resilient.  

Again, this isn’t a switch that happens over night; it builds over time. It’s a muscle. The more you workout, the stronger you get. The more you try something the stronger your confidence becomes. The stronger your confidence the more you achieve because you start fearing less. Fear is in front of you, but you push it down again and again and again. 

Here is how to get started today:

1. Write down the Top 10 times in your life you have overcome obstacles and persevered (meaning, when you feared less). 
2. Give yourself a 14-day challenge. Write down a concrete goal that you have been dragging your feet to finish, and focus on executing. Take steps to work towards it.
3. Make a list of new habits that will help you on this path. It takes 2 weeks to break an old habit or form a new one. Implement some of them into your 14-day challenge. 
4. Reread my last blog to refocus on goals for the end of 2020, and write down a list of what needs to be done to end this year successfully. See what may fit into the 14 day challenge

Creating new habits will create new building blocks for your confidence. Success starts with an idea, a belief, and then builds as you progress forward. Time to fear less as you go forward with new opportunities. Just do it!

#LetsGo!