Hi everyone! I'm very excited to finally publish a blog post on this site. I have literally had this site designed for months, with topics lined up, and ideas piling up in my notes - yet I could not get myself to hit publish.
Honestly the topics on this blog cover some of my favorite things like fitness, mindfulness, and nutrition. I've been passionate about these things since I was 14 years old and I am currently working in this field, yet I still had doubts if I would be judged or fail at creating a blog about it. I really let the fear over take me for a while and it manifested itself into me procrastinating and avoiding even starting the blog. This idea of fear stopping you from taking action actually became my inspiration for this first post! So to start things off on this blog, I want to talk about fear - whether that be in the gym, work, or in everyday activities.
That fear you feel when thinking about starting something new is literally what keeps most people from ever doing it. Since I work in the fitness industry, it is something I hear and experience myself often when it comes to trying a new type of workout or even going to the gym for the first time. It can be a fear of overwhelm or a fear of failure (sometimes if you're lucky you get both)! Your mind starts overthinking and you start comparing yourself to others or start the negative self talk. Whenever you start a new habit, it's often hard because your mind is fighting hard to stay in its old way, which is why you begin to doubt yourself and retreat back to what you knew before. It's just a fun roller coaster we all go through at certain times. All there is at any given time is the present moment and action - we can only take things one step at a time. The action we take in the present moment is something we have control over.
Focussing on the outcome of something so much can really mess with our minds and can kick up anxiety. I found that there are two main ways that being focussed on the future can stop you from taking action now and enjoying the ride instead of the outcome.
The first way we sabotage ourselves would be by spending your time thinking about how things can go wrong in the future. The classic anxiety that takes over when we are scared to try a new piece of workout equipment, move somewhere new, ask somebody out and so on. We become controlled by the possible outcome of the event that we just avoid it completely.
The second way is being a perfectionist and not doing something until it is "the perfect moment, perfect amount, perfect look...etc". It's better just to start something and fix it along the way, because nothing will ever be perfect at the start. I've heard this from countless entrepreneurs and for me personally, I always find it hard to just throw something out there if it's not "perfect". You end up spending so much time trying to make something perfect, saving up the exact amount, waiting until you have this or that--- that it never launches, releases, or gets done.
This can apply to the mentality "I wont wear that until I'm skinny enough" or "I won't go there until I have everything planned out perfectly". It just keeps us from doing it, because really we have that underlying fear that something will go wrong.
A really interesting question to ask yourself is "What would you do if you knew you would not fail". Take a pen and paper and just journal it out for a minute. It could be anything - from conversations you would have, to places you would go, or new ventures you want to explore. Once you get your thoughts down, you will see that fear sometimes plays a role in areas in life that you didn't even know it did. Life is too short to stay hidden in the shadows and let things that you want pass you by.
I'm writing this post right now finally and it is not as scary as I thought it was going to be at all. I did more damage to myself by putting it off for so long (I still put tons of things off, this is just one little step!!). It feels good to finally get over a fear and just do something and I hope this can inspire you to do the same in some way!