What’s holding you back?
Fear of putting yourself out there in public. Fear of being judged. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of choosing the wrong path.
If any of these fears sound familiar, they are quite common and hold many people back from doing meaningful work.
Here are a few techniques that can help you deal with the discomfort and uncertainty of doing meaningful work.
Take One Step At a Time
Most people make this mistake of imagining the most unsettling or scariest part of their journey right at the start. For example, speaking in front of a large crowd if they want to do public presentations, managing a large team if they want to run an NGO, or having an audience running into thousands if they wish to write a blog.
Take one small step at a time. If you want to be a public speaker, start with speaking in front of a few friends, then later, a group of 10 people.
Expose yourself gradually to the thing you are scared of and start with the least daunting version of it.
Feel the Fear
When you feel the fear, instead of turning away or avoiding it, try to turn towards it. Allow yourself to feel the fear. Notice how it manifests in your body, the actual physical sensations of it.
Allow it to stay with you and tell yourself that it’s OK. Be friendly, gentle, and open to yourself and the feeling of fear.
Your relationship with fear will transform, even if does not go away. You will realize that you do not need to do anything about it, it is not a problem, it is just a feeling, an experience, a part of the meaningful work you want to do.
Drop Your Ego
Fear creeps in because we all imagine beforehand what might happen even before doing anything. For example, ‘If I start this business, I will fail, and people will judge me since I am not good enough.’
True?
You need to need to understand why you think this way and then practice dropping it. And the first thing this involves is dropping your ego.
But how?
By immersing yourself into the present moment, becoming aware of the sensations in your body, the fear, your breath, and everything around you.
By being in the present, we can take the next step and not worry about ourselves.
Fears distract us, cause us to procrastinate, make us comfort ourselves with social media, food, games, shopping, and we avoid thinking about what we should be doing. And then, at the end of the day, we beat ourselves up for doing NOTHING.
Deal with these fears using the above techniques and get hold of your lives. Do what you want to do.
