Fear.
I don’t care who you are or where you come from, we all struggle with various fears on a daily basis. It’s one thing that unites us all, but it’s also something we don’t talk about very often. Instead, we often hear much more about hate, anger, jealousy, and criticism which only further leads to more fear. What if we just started talking more about what scares us?
Fear can be crippling. As someone who has suffered from chronic anxiety my entire life, I know that all too well. If left unchallenged, our fears can multiply. I personally fear failure, mistakes, judgment, health of myself and loved ones, not being worthy or deserving, disappointing myself and others. I even fear that I won’t be able to overcome my fears. Sometimes fears are on a smaller scale, but they seem difficult nonetheless – going out to see friends, making a difficult phone call, or getting back into an old sport. Fear can be motivating, “Oh I don’t want to mess up my speech, so I’m going to practice every day this week.” or demotivating, “I messed up and feel like an idiot, so I won’t make myself vulnerable again.”
Because of our fears and in spite of our fears, I’m making a special challenge for the month of August. This month I’m personally challenging myself and any of you who are interested to take control of our fears, whatever they may be!
From the wise words of Eleanor Roosevelt, my challenge for August is to do one thing a day that scares you.
The beauty of this challenge is that YOU define it. You make the rules and decide what is challenging for you. We all know ourselves better than anyone and it’s up to us to define this challenge in a way that meets our own needs.
I currently have some things in my life that are holding me back and I’ll be working daily this month to challenge fears and negativity and make room for personal growth.
To keep myself accountable, I’m logging my daily feats on a calendar each day. By the end of the month, I’ll hopefully have a log of large and small fears that I overcame. The end result is intended to build confidence, inspire new personal challenges, and remind ourselves that we are more powerful than we know.
How to participate
As always, let me know in the comments if you’d like to join in! I’d love to hear about what fears you’ve overcome all month long, so feel free to leave a note on my blog or Facebook page and tell me about it. If you write a recap at the end of the month on your blog and send it to me, I will try to compile all of the links in a post so others can read about your journey too. I’d love to hear about your experiences!
Last but not least, here are some quotes on fear to get us inspired: (source)
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
― John Lennon“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
― Jim Morrison“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
― Marie Curie“Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.”
― C. JoyBell C.
For more inspiring quotes, see my quote page.
If you are looking for more personal work, my Gratitude Challenge, could work hand in hand with this month’s challenge.
Here’s to August!
this is such a perfect and brave idea. im in!
today im already facing a fear- headed to the ob-gyn for my annual check up, which i, for some reason, always am fearful of. im also going to a new dr ive never been to.. eek. in about 45 minutes.
it’s pretty empowering to think of facing a fear each day. i too have general anxiety in life, and would love to release it from my days.
i love that quote by c. joybell.
the time has come to face the fears!!
Hey Angela,
I love the idea of this post, and it’s funny because just yesterday I decided to take the plunge and start a blog. Definitely scary for me, but it was something I really wanted to do, even though I’m not exactly sure which direction the blog is going to go in.
I’ve written a post today about another challenge I’ve set myself, to read a book per week for the rest of the year. I was nervous about writing this post, and it’s quite long. I’m still nervous about how the blog is going to go, but your post here gave me a little bit more confidence :)
You’re definitely an inspiration when it comes to ‘doing’ things, rather than talking about wanting to do them! So thanks for that.
Here’s the link to my blog if anyone is interested: http://thattwopointoh.wordpress.com/
I feel like it’s definitely flawed at the moment, but am hoping with some more work, (and readers who give feedback?) I can find a good flow for it.
Catherine xx
I think it is a really good challenge Angela :) I am in recovery of an eating disorder, and the lst three weeks have been really hard – I have had a huge relapse, and i has been really hard on me. Right now I fear that I won´t ever get out of my ED but I will keep on fighting. I think that I am staring to realize that I too deserve to be happy and have a healthy relationship with food and excercise, but it has taken me 7 years to realize. My eating disorder has ruined so much for my during the years, and I am scared to death that I cannot recover even though it is my biggest wish. So your challenge really has the perfect timing, and I am going to try even harder in August. And by the way you are such a big inspiration to me Angela – I am only 18, but seeing your journey is really helping me, and you help me feel like I am actually more than my ED, which is amazing. So thank you so much! :)
I apologize for any spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes – I am from Denmark :)
What an awesome idea!!! If you get a chance listen to the song “Uncaged” by the Zac Brown Band, amazing and inspiring lyrics! The most appropriate one being “everyday find a way to face my fears” :)
Love this challenge, and so great that each of us can personalize it to work for us. I’m taking this challenge head on – just have to get a list of fears, small and large, together!
Just found your blog & I’m so glad I did. I really like this challenge because I suffer from anxiety as well. Mine started about ten years ago after I had a horrible panic attack during a time in my life that I had a lot going on. I’ve gotten a lot better over the years but I still limit myself because of the fear of having another panic attack. I think this challenge is a great way to help me get pass those limits.
I really love this idea. I am afraid of sharing my fears, my fear really runs deep. I am totally in, and will do a post about it at the end of the month. You rock, and I love the new site design!!!
Wow- I love this idea! And once a day? Whoa. That would really force me to identify just how many “fears” I have that control me.
I recently quit my job as a teacher of 7 years to pursue my passions in another career. It scared the heck out of me- but I did it. But now, I’m kind of scared to “find happiness” through this new career change!
I’ve been away for a while- love the new blog look!
Two posts received today about challenges, must be a sign. I’m in. I lost 70 pounds last year and have been maintaining, learning about healthy and whole foods, and really expanding my cooking skills. However, I have a fear. A fear of increasing the calories I eat and regaining the weight. I’m hungry all the time. I also think it’s starting to effect my moods. I want to challenge myself to eat more GOOD quality food and feel more satisfied. To that end I’m going to face my fear of eating more and gaining the weight back and learn how to maintain by eating more than 1200 calories a day. At the same time I’m going to take the Blood Sugar Challenge on divinehealthfromtheinsideout.com. AND start a blog about it all. Thank you so much for the inspiration. I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now and love it.
Too funny that you are starting this! A close friend and I actually started our own challenge yesterday! We each listed 5 negative things/behaviors/people we don’t want in our lives anymore and then listed 5 things we are replacing them with . We are committing to this for 30 days!
“I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
I have come to realize that fear is a tactic the enemy uses to hold us back from what God really has for us. Through Christ I can over come fear, anxiety, depression, and heartache. If I try to do something on my own I will continually fail or succeed then eventually go back to my habbits. But by having a relationship with Jesus and relying on him to get me through this, I can overcome anything. It’s only through him that we can have TRUE victory. Freedom is so sweet! All you ladies rock! :)
I love all your posts and recipes Angela! Keep up the amazing work.
I have been doing a lot of self discovery over the last few months and I came to the realization, literally a week ago, that I lived and based most of my life decisions on fear. That alone was a fearful concept to me. Starting today, I am joining your challenge, which I will chronicle on my own blog, to ensure I start living life to the fullest and taking charge rather than fading into the background. What makes it better is that, my 32nd birthday is coming up near the end of August and I cannot think of a better gift to give myself then my own life, free of fear for the first time. Thanks for giving me the extra push and I look extremely forward to following your journey as well.
Leesah
I’m definitely in!
Fear keeps me back from so many things in life. Mostly mine is about judgement, not wanting to disappoint myself or others, failure….ah the list goes on.
Because of all my fears I hardly ever challenge myself. There are so many things that I’d like to accomplish someday but I never try them or I try them and am not perfect at it right away and then quit. I love the idea of this challenge :)
I SO needed this today. Thank you and I am taking the challenge – may not be sharing much and may fight many of the same ones every day, but I’m in :)
Great challenge. I am launching my own business and have lapsed into old fear patterns lately. Thanks for the reminder. I have also wanted to cut my hair short, but am afraid it will make me look fat. That is crazy. I’ll start with the haircut.
Aileen
I am in, I am very scared of swimming, and I know I am missing a lot, so maybe I can make it happen in August! :)
LOVE this idea, girlfriend! I will definitely be in.
I’m in!
Like many of your other readers, I’ve also dealt with anxiety (although undiagnosed), and would love to overcome some of my fears. The first one is fear of the doctor! Thankfully I rarely ever get sick so I don’t have a need to go, but it’s meant that I don’t go for routine check-ups for fear of what they’ll tell me. (This does not include the eye doctor or the dentist – both of whom I love). I have scheduled an appointment with a dermatologist beginning of next month. Scheduling the appointment is the first step (and already I feel better). :)
It’s so nice to know you’re not the only one suffering from anxiety.
What a great challenge! I’ve been saving and saving so that I can quit my job and find a job I’m more passionate about so maybe this is the month to finally make that change. I’ve been reading your Career posts over and over for motivation, so I want to thank you for that and for this challenge. Onwards and upwards, right?
I would love to join in! We’ve got a few months of change coming up in our family and it’s not easy. I’m writing an eBook, and I’m afraid of failing, I’m attempting to make a complete transition to vegan which is scary since both sides of our families are BIG meat eaters, they don’t believe you can’t get protein from a different source, so anyways I’m in!!!!