Fear

Some of us have it. I know I do. I know plenty of people who seem not to have any fear at all either.

Or at least they don’t fear the same things that I do. Are they really fearless or are they just out there tackling their fears?

I have silly fears like not wanting to fall off of my road bike (so I don’t ride as much as I know I would love to). Deep down I wonder if we just don’t want to get hurt. Many of us have fears around rejection, we are fearful that if we put something out there – people won’t like it or will judge us. Those fears hold us back.

Here is what I am going to do about riding my bike. I set a personal goal to ride in a bike race this fall. That scares me on many levels. The crowds, my own capabilities unclipping, my endurance, etc.

What am I doing to reach that goal? I am asking for help. A have a few friends that ride pretty regularly and I put it out there that I want to ride. One friend said, “Lee – let’s ride.” My jaw about dropped when she said let’s ride tomorrow, I will come by for you in the morning at 9am. I agreed and had to just step up and do it. I knew I could ride, but that silly fear of falling over (which I know may even happen from time to time) set in and I started doubting myself. But honestly I was excited too. I know where I want to go with this and I know how much I do love being on the bike on the open road. So, what did I do? I didn’t call her and cancel our ride – although I could have easily done that, I even had a legitimate excuse, the plumber was coming and I had to be home. We worked through that obstacle and adjusted our ride time (thank heavens for flexible friends). My friend showed up at 11am and we headed out.

We took an easy ride and I enjoyed it. We made a standing appointment every week to ride. Next week will we ride twice as far as this week. It is all about progress and pushing yourself.

I challenge you to make a list of things that you are fearful of. Then take one of those things and make a list of some steps that you can take to help you overcome that fear. Feel free to respond here or email me your fear and what you are going to do to become more comfortable with it.