Overcoming Fear

I recently had the pleasure of mountain biking with some amazing women. Women who busted through the trails, like it was no big deal. I stayed behind at the back of the pack with an amazing coach, who poured her heart out to me about her passion of biking. You see biking is a competitive world.

In college I was in a road biking class. I had missed a couple of rides and my teacher decided he needed to make a point. He put me in the front of the pack as the leader. While everyone else had bought new state of the art road bikes, mine was old school. The gear shifters were on the bar by my pedals, so I had to reach down to shift. It was humiliating. I became dehydrated eventually lost my pack and one guy from the class felt sorry enough for me to ride me home.

It’s negative experiences like that, that can have such an impact on our future confidence. Last night I had fun, I learned and I made it to a mountaintop with a bunch of ladies I had just met. Life is not about taking huge steps and becoming something or someone great overnight. It’s about taking baby steps. Overcoming a fear.

Yesterday I struggled to commit to a ladies ride. I had every excuse; kids needed me, house wasn’t clean, I’m out of shape. I started to make myself feel physically sick. But I mentally took myself out of the fear that was becoming so crippling and envisioned the person I want to be. And that person is brave, has fun, goes on adventures and doesn’t stress about trying something new.

Whatever it is that is holding you back from trying something new towards becoming who you want to be, let it go. Fear is powerful. But it doesn’t have power unless you give it your time and attention. One of the most crippling things about fear or anxiety is the inability to move and getting stuck in your head. Sometimes things in life knock us down harder than others and it’s physically hard to move or get motivated. The physiological changes that happen in our body when we begin to move, will change our feelings and eventually our thoughts.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of strengthening one's thoughts and behaviors. We have the power to experience total bliss or a living hell in this life we’re given. It’s all about our perspective. I wish you today to think of one thing you fear and begin to overcome it. Think of the person you want to be and take the baby steps towards becoming him or her.