Have the courage to face up to your biggest fears – and what if your biggest fear is being who you are?
It’s a difficult proposition for a lot of people. There’s a fear of being authentic because being yourself makes you truly vulnerable and rejection of your authentic self is a lot harder to take. But people who wear masks aren’t happy. People who put on a front for different groups of people are stressed out and weighed down by putting on an act.
That doesn’t mean situations where you show certain parts of yourself to certain friend groups. For example, in the workplace, you are projecting a professional image. You aren’t going to tell everyone about your standing appointment building Lego with your friend every Thursday night. But if you resisted the standing appointment out of fear of people judging you, that would be masking who you are and that would be you rejecting that part of yourself.
What does it take to have the courage to be who you are always and in all ways? Confidence. It goes together with courage like a horse and carriage. The confidence to know what you are capable of and to take the steps to do it. A deep knowing that starts as a quiet understanding that develops into a fuel.
You can’t erase fear, it’s not something you can just go through life without experiencing. What courage means is acting despite the fear. It’s pushing past it to do the thing anyway, whether it’s building Lego every Thursday night, taking the black diamond route at the top of the mountain, or admitting to your friends that your favorite band is Maroon 5, when they listen to opera.
If you have lacked courage up until this point, that’s okay. It’s not something you have to continue.
You are who you uniquely are, and the reality is that you will uncover more about yourself as you learn and grow. Your interests aren’t static, they’re as dynamic as your personality. As tempting as it is to give into the what if I fail thought or what if people make fun of me, what does that really matter if you are letting it hold you back from pursuing the path you want?
Whatever you are afraid of, be honest and acknowledge those fears, whether it’s judgment from others or something deeper. Be willing to confront the fears you uncover when you get honest with yourself. Learn to take it to your heart and be compassionate and forgiving of yourself for putting your power outside of yourself and giving other peoples thoughts or words more weight that your own, intuitions, feelings and thoughts.
Are you holding back from applying for a promotion or a new job because you are more scared of not succeeding or failing? The thing is that every experience is just feedback and learning and you will never know how to succeed until you act, apply, make the leap. “Feel the fear and do it anyway” is a real thing!
Or are you scared of succeeding and what that will mean? There are all different reasons for fear and while your emotions are valid, they aren’t necessarily telling you the truth. So, you have to be prepared to be honest with yourself to overcome your fears.
Positive self-talk is a handy tool to help you overcome fears and act more courageously. When you identify the things that hold you back, you can tailor some positive affirmations to correct any negative self-talk that might crop up.
Connecting with your heart also helps because the values of your heart are love, compassion, gratitude and this can assist you in getting clearer. When you take your emotions into your heart and just breath into your heart and be with your emotions they give you information and awareness.
You would do well to get accustomed to being uncomfortable – sometimes you need to sit with discomfort in order to ramp up your courage. People enjoy staying in the comfort zone because it seems easy, don’t let yourself deceive yourself with the live easily myth when you want more.
If you want to have the courage to be who you are always and, in all ways, then you need to start practicing your bravery on a regular basis. Even the smallest moments of pushing past your discomfort or fear to do something new, to voice an opinion, to say no or voice an idea. Forget about what other people think, Because feeling the fear and doing it anyway, being courageous in this life, builds the self-esteem, builds the confidence. Being courageous allows you to see you, to stop hiding, to accept yourself more and have more happiness in the now. Happiness in the now creates more success in every area of your life!
