Doing something everyday that scares you is something I’ve always tried to live by. While each ‘boundary’ is different and personal to the individual, no matter how big or small it might be, it’s your comfort zone that you’re pushing yourself from. But is it realistic to do something that scares you each day? We often think of these things in grandiose goals and feats. Yet, doing something everyday that scares you can be quite simple things that might not freak you out completely, but could be intimidating in some way.
I’m a keen runner. I love running as most people who know me will testify. But running can be scary sometimes. Just yesterday I had an intervals session planned, which involves running as hard as you can for just under half a kilometre, with a 45-60 ‘jog’ second break in between – do one and repeat ten times. The goal is to keep the time of each ‘loop’ as consistent as possible i.e. within 2-4 seconds between the fastest and slowest. The session scares me because it really really hurts me.
It’s all about suffering in some way. It makes me feel sick. It hurts my legs. But deep down, there’s a strange perversion of enjoyment. It scares me, yet I love it. I can see the huge opportunity in doing it.
These little opportunities as I see them aren’t necessarily life changing things on a day-by-day basis, but over the course of a life-time, all add up to a pretty big change in the way you approach not only your running (in my case), but the way you lead your life. Your entire perspective on life changes.
While running really hard in circles for 30 minutes might scare me, I trust the process of what I’m doing. The same goes for business. I pretty much say ‘yes’ to most things, within reason. You never know quite where it might take you.
People often talk about fate, or indeed luck. Some people are ‘more lucky’ than others, or fate just seems to always work out for them. Fate is a result of choice and opportunity. If you’re presented with an opportunity, take it and choose to say yes – you never know here it might lead you towards being ‘luckier’.