My preferred method of facing down fear has always been to squeeze my eyes shut and jump.
Although not for everyone, it’s the one way I can ensure I don’t think too much, if I even start the over think cycle I immediately fling open the doors to the inner critic who starts babbling incessantly and provides me with a million reasons why I can’t/shouldn’t do something.
The jumping strategy comes from 20 years working as a television actor. The worst place an actor can be is in their head. Those performances are ‘acted’ — not real, not believable….completely forgettable. My modus operandi was to make my character choices, commit fully, let go and jump. Improv was a whole other ball of wax, there was NO time to even consider choices it was simply – jump. This resembles jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet. But you get used to it and I carried it forward.
So jumping it is–except when it’s not….sometimes the free fall is just too scary and another strategy is called for. ENTER…..small steps to get past GO. I recently took some of those…. they were smaller than small they were…..teensy.
I had the idea for this blog – talking to mid life women who (like me) wanted Part 2 of their lives to be characterized by living their dreams fearlessly. Not a bad start. But (it’s never good when that word pop up) I’m a talker (accomplished one) not a writer and OMG on top of that I’d have to deal with technology. UGH. Still the desire persisted so I considered what the small steps could be. Broken down I could breath and the joy returned. I was able to get into ACTion, disarm fear and move little by little. Here’s an account of my steps.
I started talking about it (making it real and me accountable), I researched what was out there specifically for the mid life woman ( lots under the crisis, depression and menopause headings), looked at other blogs to assess style and design, I contacted a web designer and met with her, I started writing (for myself), I contracted said web designer to design site, I continued writing (deleting much of it) looking for a style to emerge, I told my family and close friends what I was doing,I asked 3 friends (all with different perspectives) if they would read my first 30 days and report back with critiques and comments,.
I created a safe environment for me to play and grow.
I took my next baby steps by creating a red shoe facebook page. Then a small step I sent emails, catching up with friends and telling them about the Red Shoe Zone. I learned how to issue facebook invites and clicked –SEND.
That’s where I am today…2 months down the path and ready to take bigger steps.
Breaking it down I can celebrate and savour all parts of the journey and disarm fears bit by bit. I’m loving it.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-Tzu
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