Being Afraid and Doing it Anyway

In the last 10 days I’ve taught 14 classes at six different studios here in Charlotte. I‘m feeling a regenerated sense of connection to my community and this feeling deep down that I’m on the right path.

photo: SweatNet

I don’t always feel this way though. I question myself all the time: my ability to teach, lead and create. I know I write about this a lot - how when you’re paving your own way, you’ll experience feelings of resistance. I feel this often, anyway. Uncertainty, fear of the unknown and (for me) the scariest of all: fear of failure.

NPR’s ‘How I Built This’ podcast is one of my favorites. I‘ve found the common denominator of these wildly successful innovators, idealists and entrepreneurs is this: they were terrified, but they went for it anyway. They were open to the idea of taking big risks and failing and they failed regularly, sometimes hundreds of times but they didn’t let that stop them.

No doubt there are times when even the most powerful, badass people in the world question whether or not anyone cares what they have to say. I’m starting to think that maybe the difference between them and everyone else is they take a deep breath and go for it anyway.

You should too. If you have the passion and drive - go after it, whatever ‘it’ is. Failure is scary AF (trust me, I feel you) but here is another truth: every time we fail, we grow. We learn and we get stronger.

You are resilient (probably more resilient than you know). Keep dreaming big and never, ever give up.

XX,

Jaimis