“Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death.” – Betty Bender

“”It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott

Fear

You know, that paralyzing feeling that stops you in your tracks. I can’t tell you how many times I have been caught in this bear trap. But fear comes in many different shapes and sizes. It’s not always the person ready to run across the battlefield to save a brother in arms – in fact, it rarely is. For most of us, it’s facing daily challenges and obstacles. And for me, tonight, I want to talk about facing your potential. Your goals, future, and dreams. It’s easy to face fear for a day – but what about a week…a month…a year?

So most of us aren’t ripped Spartans

But that’s not the point. Today is about how to kick the sh*t out of fear. Straight and simple…and I’m going to do something I rarely do…I’m going to write down my method. Your mind can play pretty big tricks on you – and add in all the parasites (habits) that have been feeding on your weaknesses and sprinkle on some good ole naysayer talk and you have yourself a pretty wicked situation going on in your dome. Trust me, it’s not always because you are weak that you are feeling fearful. In fact, often of times the enemy is dug in your head that you just can’t seem to find the advantage. Call forth your artillery.

Write it all down

Put it on paper. I promise you – problems in the head often get majorly magnified, but once you put it down on paper, they become much smaller than you thought. Write out your complaints on the left side of the paper…draw an arrow across the paper for each complaint…and on the ride side of the paper create an action plan to solve each complaint. So maybe your uncle is being a complete jackass – are you going to let it go or are you going to do something about it? One or the other – because if you let the complaint sit with you long enough…it will end up burying itself deep in your mind and you will have one hell of a time getting it out. Think of trying to scrape barnacles off a boat with your bare hands.

Daily Goals

The first thing I do when I wake up is get to a pad of paper and write out my plan + goals for the day. I promise you, there is no better feeling than creating a plan and then working it. Once you nail your daily goals – then move to weekly goals…monthly goals…yearly goals and so on. I love goal setting. I mean…I  can talk goals all day with you – but it becomes really easy to write out 5 year and 10 year goals…I mean shoot even one year goals and then forget about them. Sure you can put them in a place where they are visible and you can see them every day, but many of us have so many goals that we want to accomplish that this can be overwhelming. So what the hell do you do?

Take your goals – split them up into monthly goals – then create weekly and daily checklists

It’s a lot of work. Trust me…but this IS your life! And these are the things you are really passionate about – so why not do what it takes to actually get your goals done? The mentality that has brought me to disaster a great deal of the time is, “Okay…so I have a goal to run 100 miles a month…Go.” Maybe you will start running on a good schedule the first week or so…but once life “lives” you, which it certainly always does, you are going to get thrown off, miss miles, and then at the end of the month be confronted with a 50 mile run because you had no plan. Feel me on this analogy? Plan the work…work the plan.

No General ever went to war without a battle plan (except for Custer…that didn’t pan out)

Celebrate – when you have something to celebrate. It’s really easy to go out drinking…partying…eating improperly etc (if your goal is food related) when you have been doing a good job. This has to be part of the plan. Plan your cheating. That’s right. Plan that out and give yourself a break once in a while – but write it down and make sure it’s part of the total equation. And celebrate when you have a major victory…it makes it that much more fun.

Attitude – and no other quote can say it better than the one I am going to end with tonight. Get after it – go be everything you have always wanted to be – plan it out – work the plan – and be a badass. Goodnight.

“Yeah, though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for I am the meanest son of a b*tch in the valley.” – Joel Rosenberg

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