Man can I relate to this! So many times in my life, I’ve been terrified, almost frozen with fear. My hands shaking, heart pounding in my ears, butterflies in my stomach, and a cold sweat.
What’s surprised me over and over again, is that in nearly every case, the fear was much scarier than what I feared. The saying “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself” is certainly true in my life.
The last time I remember being really scared was about a year ago, when I had to have a very difficult conversation with someone, who I knew wouldn’t want to hear what I had to say and would probably be very angry. I dreaded making that call for several days and I tried dialing the number a few times, and hung up before I dialed the whole number. I was near panic.
Finally, I just took another deep breath, dialed the number all the way, and had the conversation. It wasn’t a pleasant conversation to say the least but it certainly wasn’t worth all the heartache I put myself through, dreading the call. I was so relieved when the call was over and in retrospect, it was actually a pretty funny call because the person was so much more upset than the situation called for.
Long story short – try to remember the next time you’re scared, to just keep going. The fear is almost always worse than what you fear.
Be well,
Greg