You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt
DISSOLVE FEAR
If your desires are artificial, they won’t feel comfortable. Be sure that what you desire is promising to build your self-esteem, inform and teach you, and be compatible with your own personal values.
Everything you need to achieve your goals, you already have in the present moment. It’s worrying about the future that causes distress. Often we linger on the one thing in the day that didn’t work out as planned, even if the rest of the day went well. Your mind might hang on to the phone call that didn’t come through, the person who wasn’t completely sincere, or you might obsess over a misunderstanding.
Remind yourself of what you are really trying to accomplish if this happens. Are you trying hard
to please the world – someone ‘out there’ – or are you connecting to a deeper, truer place inside of yourself? This is where your safety lies, and when you make this shift in your thinking, you reconnect to the higher part of yourself that feels authentic.
Face those fears, ask yourself who you are trying to please. A major shift occurs when you remember
to give the trust, the credit, and all of your efforts to pleasing the creator of You. The results you see will be much greater, and you will be released from anxiety and fear and free to live the life of your dreams.
Be Fearless
"I'm shy and walking into a room is a feat in itself. If you're shy, you go through those moments." Elizabeth Taylor
Be Fearless
When your passion for a dream makes you take a wholehearted leap and you commit to doing whatever is necessary, you add purpose and meaning to your life. This is not the time to be shy. Even if you are bold and confident most of the time, opportunities have a way of bringing up a combination of excitement and nervousness at the same time. It’s like stage fright; your body is preparing to move out of its established comfort zone into unfamiliar territory. After all, we only have a glimpse of what we want at this point. That is exciting. And it’s also scary.
If it were easy, we would get bored very quickly.
I remember taking an acting class in Los Angeles several years ago. The acting coach walked out on the stage and looked out at all of his students sitting in the auditorium facing him. We came from all walks of life, all ages, and stages. But in the class with this respected, renowned, revered Coach, we were on a level playing field - beginners. An acting class teaches us to get in touch with our feelings, know ourselves better, and touch places we might have hidden, or struggled not to accept. It didn’t matter where we were in life, we all had rich emotions. The acting coach stopped in the center of the stage and said words that hit a cord in me, made me realize how all the times I had allowed myself to feel insecure or introverted were not doing me any favors. What he said was simple, but activated a stronger side of who I really was.
Here’s what he said, standing on the stage, looking at all of our expectant, hopeful and nervous faces:
“Always be the first to volunteer, to raise your hand. Be the first to get on the stage.”
You could hear a pin drop.
Then the next thing he said was, “You don’t know what I’m going to ask you
to do when you get up here, on this stage, but who wants to be first?”
There were several of us who leaped out of our chairs, jostling each other to get on the stage first. There was a lot of laughing, teasing and joking. I took the stairs, some leaped on the stage like gymnasts. When we lined up in front of the audience, our eyes were shining. All we needed was an invitation
not to be shy.
That day is still forged in my memory, like a life's lesson stamped on to replace an old worn out belief. There were several students who remained in their seats, and those of us on stage had a ton of fun, acting out the different scenarios the Coach put us through. I learned a lot about improvisation, the art of peeling back the layers of our fears, getting 'over ourselves' and just being willing to do our best without self-judgment and criticism.
I was learning about self-acceptance and authenticity... and about becoming fearless and
taking risks, because it's the only way to follow your heart and reach your
Dreams.
It takes a lot of peeling back sometimes to get to know ourselves, and to stop being overprotective and afraid of getting damaged. The big question all of us have is, after all, Who Am I?
The biggest thing I learned that day from the Coach was this: If you’re going after your dreams, this is not the time to be shy.
I learned it, and Elizabeth Taylor learned it. The good news is, it gets easier.
You start to make eye contact when you would prefer to look down at your shoes.
You tell yourself a story of how amazing you look when you straighten your shoulders and walk into a crowded room, and refuse to believe the little voice inside that says you should have worn the other dress and that you probably have lipstick on your teeth when you smile.
You hope that when you clamor on a stage to be first, you don’t appear rude.
You hope that just in case you really are good, well, maybe even great, that someone won’t be there to ‘put you in your place.’
You just go for it, because just beyond - on the other side of shyness - is the
answer to the question: “Who Am I?”
When your passion for a dream makes you take a wholehearted leap and you commit to doing whatever is necessary, you add purpose and meaning to your life. This is not the time to be shy. Even if you are bold and confident most of the time, opportunities have a way of bringing up a combination of excitement and nervousness at the same time. It’s like stage fright; your body is preparing to move out of its established comfort zone into unfamiliar territory. After all, we only have a glimpse of what we want at this point. That is exciting. And it’s also scary.
If it were easy, we would get bored very quickly.
I remember taking an acting class in Los Angeles several years ago. The acting coach walked out on the stage and looked out at all of his students sitting in the auditorium facing him. We came from all walks of life, all ages, and stages. But in the class with this respected, renowned, revered Coach, we were on a level playing field - beginners. An acting class teaches us to get in touch with our feelings, know ourselves better, and touch places we might have hidden, or struggled not to accept. It didn’t matter where we were in life, we all had rich emotions. The acting coach stopped in the center of the stage and said words that hit a cord in me, made me realize how all the times I had allowed myself to feel insecure or introverted were not doing me any favors. What he said was simple, but activated a stronger side of who I really was.
Here’s what he said, standing on the stage, looking at all of our expectant, hopeful and nervous faces:
“Always be the first to volunteer, to raise your hand. Be the first to get on the stage.”
You could hear a pin drop.
Then the next thing he said was, “You don’t know what I’m going to ask you
to do when you get up here, on this stage, but who wants to be first?”
There were several of us who leaped out of our chairs, jostling each other to get on the stage first. There was a lot of laughing, teasing and joking. I took the stairs, some leaped on the stage like gymnasts. When we lined up in front of the audience, our eyes were shining. All we needed was an invitation
not to be shy.
That day is still forged in my memory, like a life's lesson stamped on to replace an old worn out belief. There were several students who remained in their seats, and those of us on stage had a ton of fun, acting out the different scenarios the Coach put us through. I learned a lot about improvisation, the art of peeling back the layers of our fears, getting 'over ourselves' and just being willing to do our best without self-judgment and criticism.
I was learning about self-acceptance and authenticity... and about becoming fearless and
taking risks, because it's the only way to follow your heart and reach your
Dreams.
It takes a lot of peeling back sometimes to get to know ourselves, and to stop being overprotective and afraid of getting damaged. The big question all of us have is, after all, Who Am I?
The biggest thing I learned that day from the Coach was this: If you’re going after your dreams, this is not the time to be shy.
I learned it, and Elizabeth Taylor learned it. The good news is, it gets easier.
You start to make eye contact when you would prefer to look down at your shoes.
You tell yourself a story of how amazing you look when you straighten your shoulders and walk into a crowded room, and refuse to believe the little voice inside that says you should have worn the other dress and that you probably have lipstick on your teeth when you smile.
You hope that when you clamor on a stage to be first, you don’t appear rude.
You hope that just in case you really are good, well, maybe even great, that someone won’t be there to ‘put you in your place.’
You just go for it, because just beyond - on the other side of shyness - is the
answer to the question: “Who Am I?”
