Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway…

I wish I could take credit for such brilliant advice, but the truth is that’s the title of the best selling book by Susan Jeffers.
Even though I know the content and fully understand her message, I still have to pull that book out from time to time to help me over my current (and usually irrational) fear.

Fear is not necessarily a “scary, boo” kind of fear; I find it’s more of a paralysis led by negative thinking (Susan calls this your “inner nag”).
My current fear/paralysis has been exercise.
I know I have to start back up, I have a daily intention to start back up, and I’ve even blogged to the entire blogosphere that I’m going to start back up.
But at the end of each day, it’s just been a new day with the same old failed goal.

When in a cycle like this, be it needing to look for work, going back to school, making an unpleasant phone call… doesn’t matter what the issue is; by failing to face it, it seems to take on a much bigger and detrimental role in our lives. It’s the pink elephant it the other room, always there weighing us down.

But if you feel it, face it and then do it, guess what?
It’s liberating; almost anti-climactic.
You may even feel a bit of a fool to have let “it” become such a negative force in your daily life.

This morning I faced it straight on.
Kim, Kathy, Judy and I went to Zumba class.
As my mother would say, “Zumba ain’t for pussies”; it kicked our collective asses!

We moved our bodies for 60 uninterrupted minutes.
Our skinny Zumba-leader would occasionally sprint across the floor to switch the music. Only then could we all reach for our knees and gasp for air. I found myself willing her to trip on these dashes just to buy us a few more moments of rest!

When we were done, (and it was clear we could walk out of they gym under our own faculties), we felt terrific.
I finally faced that fear.
My honest expectation going forward is that I can once again meet my weekly exercise goal.

So feel your fear today, turn off your “inner nag”, think positive and do it anyway.