USLM3- The Journey to Success

[mat422]

That feeling is called fear of the unknown. You're feeling it because you've never done this before. That is spelled P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S. Allow your emotional self to feel it, and then consciously guide yourself back to the task at hand, which is taking the next step toward achieving whatever goal you are working towards. Breaking your goals down into small enough steps is the key to making this easy.

Usually when my fears start acting up, and I recognize consciously that it is my fear talking and that what it is telling me is not true, I say to myself, "Come on now, you and I both know that's not true." It always falls back on "But what if..." and then I start laughing, because "What if the moon falls on my head? What if killer cockroaches try to assassinate my big toe with a toothpick? What if the sun turns into a lobster? Oh noes!!!"

What if is actually a rather fun (and funny) game. You can be as irrational and ridiculous with it as you like, and as long as you don't take it seriously, it's amusing. The problem comes when you take it seriously. And if you do, think it through logically. What if I try and fail? Well then I have learned how not to succeed, so I can avoid that next time I try to succeed... and I am never going to stop trying to succeed, so all I have done is help myself succeed!

Thanks Shannon. As of right now I don't think that less serious one is doable for me. A lot of my life has been spent being too serious, but it's because I constantly felt like I was one mistake away from a major catastrophe. That feeling has haunted me for years. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that I don't really have a fallback or proof that I can be a self-sufficient individual. So I can't not be serious because a lot of it just feels like my survival depends on it. At its core it's just a very primal fear.

But like you said, failure isn't really a thing as long as I keep trying. And I'm not letting these fears stop me from continuing to move forward. I may not be able to convince myself that I can do it or take it less seriously but my actions are what matter and I can follow through on those independent of my feelings.