I'm not brave, I just keep trying
posted by Dave Dame
November 02, 2014
A lot of people approached me recently congratulating me on being brave. Also, a number of people asked me how I became so brave to challenge myself and put myself out there. I don't think I woke up one day and was instantly brave. Like everyone, I have fears, anxieties, and insecurities.
I believe what encouraged me to face these things is to deal with them more frequently. I would face my fears, anxieties, and insecurities, slowly pushing myself to achieving things that previously scared me. In doing scary things often, you get better at dealing with failure. The more you deal with making mistakes or not achieving something, the better you can recover from it. Doing this frequently makes this uncomfortable feeling your new normal. This is training your brain to live in this uncomfortable place. You're conditioning your emotions to deal with setbacks. You're conditioning yourself to get back up and show resilience. The more you do something the easier it gets. Using this structure/framework allows me to deal with the challenges and builds courage. The more accomplishments you've achieved (whether it's from a number of trial and errors or if you get it the first time) keeps moving you forward.
I also give a little credit of being stubborn to overcoming fear. I tend to want to face what people say is impossible, or unrealistic, as a challenge to overcome. Every great success story began with the notion of impossible or unrealistic… I like to fill in the rest of the story between the start and finish. It's not easy. It's very frustrating. It's really hard work. It's incredibly rewarding.
The last thing you want in life is to live with regret. Making mistakes gives you a chance to learn from them. If the number of missed opportunities pile up, it will give you a worse feeling than you would have ever experienced from being uncomfortable and recovering from failure.
Having a support structure around you to continue to support, inspire, console, and challenge you is essential. The power of your inner circle can either break you or encourage you… find your supportive circle.
It's very easy to point fault at someone or not to believe… If we want others to achieve success from being uncomfortable we have to support and encourage them.
Life is short. Life is a gift. Life is unfair. Life is hard. Life is awesome. If being uncomfortable makes you live it to the fullest… Why would you ever want to be comfortable?
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