The words “Fear into Power” were written on a T-shirt I wore yesterday, a souvenir from a Tony Robbins event I went to many years ago to walk on fire. An amazing experience but not what I am writing about today, more the synchronicity of timing of pulling out a forgotten T-shirt!
For yesterday, my daughter and I joined a gym! To her great excitement and my great fear!
Why fear?
- Fear that I would be judged (by whom I don’t know!)
- Fear that I would look stupid using the weights
- Fear that I would hurt myself
- Fear that I would realise how unfit and weak I am
- Fear that I wouldn’t be good enough…
The list can go on!
My question to you, is what do you fear?
Fear can come up in all sorts of situations, especially when we ask ourselves to do something new. Newness can and is scary! Being a beginner, means the unknown and as our brains often don’t like uncertainty, being a beginner can often leave us unsure of can we do it. It is the thought of can I really do it which stops us in our tracks and we muddle it into our head as a fear.
If you look at some of the statements I made they are thoughts and I have no idea if they are a reality as I haven’t actually gone and used the gym yet!
Which is a point I would like to raise, our thoughts create an action.
In this case, it would be easy to listen to my thoughts that going to the gym is going to make me be judged, look stupid, hurt myself, highlight my levels of fitness and show me I am not good enough… and in listening to those thoughts… I could very easily decide not to go to the gym. Which would be very easy option if it wasn’t for my daughter, who is acting as my coach for the summer.
This is why a coach is a useful ally. They have your back, they encourage you to take action, even when you don’t want to, they cheer you along, they ask of you to create a better thought.
What then do you think a better thought would be to my fear thoughts or yours?
In creating better thoughts so we allow ourselves to take better action and in doing so allow a better outcome for ourselves.
My challenge then to you, is to examine your thoughts and if they are useful to you or not and if not, create a better thought.
And, if I was to circle back to my opening line about my t-shirt… I can turn my fear into power by acknowledging said fears about the gym and release resistance by allowing the thought ‘the gym is a place for me to become powerful in my body and mind’.
To read more about overcoming our fear of change, click here.
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