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What’s more important than understanding your goals?
Understanding your fears...
The best way to deal with your fears is to stare them down directly in the face! Square up and understand your fears so deeply, that you no longer have anxiety and other emotional baggage pulling you down.
Fear comes from not fully understanding what it is you fear. When you know your fears, and can explain why you are afraid of them, you will know why you have not gone out there and acted.
Regret is the worst emotion a human can experience. It is far worse than fear, anxiety, jealousy, and even physical pain itself. So instead of experiencing regret, overcome your fears!
Two advantages of laying out my goals,
Writing down your goals gives you a map of where you want to go, and how to get there. For all of my high achievers out there, this is a must!
Investing in a relationshipStart an affiliate based businessTry Jiu-Jitsu for a month
75 yoga sessions
150 WOD sessionsA 10-day meditation tripWrite 2 personal posts per month
Read 18 books and take notesTravel out of a backpack to a new area
To track my progress, I am using google forms to populate a spreadsheet.
But what is as important as understanding your goals, is understanding your fears and how they can hold you back.
Here are my biggest fears at this point in my life.
DefinePreventRepairLetting other people’s opinions shape my life.Do it for me! Focus my goals and efforts around what I want.Revisit whose opinions actually help me, versus hurt meLosing my drive and not starting my own business.Wake up in a world where the only thing that can stop me is myself!Meditate and re-understand why I am on this planet.Freighdo (my van) breaking down or being stolen.Fix it! Always make sure my doors are locked. Build another van. Call the local police.Contracting an STDAlways ask about an STD test and wear a condom.Seek medical attention.
Like most things in life, the cost of inaction is far worse than trying and failing. Tim Ferriss has a great exercise to understand and avoid your fears.
That moment when you know you should do it. But you really don’t want to.
What will they say about me?
What happens if I am rejected?
Isn’t failing worse than not trying?
These are all common excuses, we all experience them, we all fall back on them.
Every excuse that we accept makes us weaker. But when we are strong enough to overcome our excuses, we grow.
Each excuse is a step in the wrong direction from where we want to go.
And chances are, you already know what you want in life. Or at least you have a general idea of what you want, which is more than enough to get started in the correct direction.
There will be hard times, with fear, short-lived failure, and you might even start to question your own sanity.
These are even more signs that what you are about to do is what you really want.
The only problem is when you experience that scary feeling. The one that makes your stomach drop to the floor, your hands sweat profusely, your heart pound at an outrageous pace.
These are the signs that you are doing the correct things. And that the time to push forward is now!
Let’s just be honest, if it were easy? It would be boring immediately.
So you can chase boring activities, or strive to accomplish those things that are on your goal sheet hanging on your wall. You can read it every morning and night to guide you through this everlasting journey we call life.
The next time your stomach is on the floor and your heart is pounding, push forward and don’t look back.
P.S. if you don’t have a goal sheet, DROP EVERYTHING and write down 3-5 goals on paper, or a doc, hell even a sticky note. Whatever you have around, it doesn’t matter. This sheet will change constantly. It will be your compass and possibly even your roadmap through this game we call life!