Note: I no longer use the doitscared.com domain. In November of last year, I received an offer to purchase that domain name. I didn’t have any plans for the domain and have progressed beyond the Do It Scared motto, so I accepted the offer. I still think the message is worthy so have migrated the contents of the old About page to this post.
“Do It Scared” is a way of life that I am trying to adopt 100% of the time. It is a way to overcome the fear that our busy minds keep inventing to keep us safe (physically, mentally, and emotionally). Those fears are outdated vestiges of evolution (fight or flee), they prevent us from living fully, and we no longer need to be driven by them.
Usually if I’m afraid to do something and it’s not an obviously dangerous thing (like jumping out of a plane without a parachute), it is something important that I should do. It is something I care about and am afraid to fail at or be embarrassed by. If I push myself past the fear and do it, I find every time that it is very exciting and rewarding to do.
The more I do things scared, the more comfortable I am with having fears. The first time is the hardest and the most rewarding. The next and next time, it isn’t so bad since I have the “I’ve done it before…” to depend on. Strangely, I am starting to look for things that cause me to be uncertain or anxious (fear in my book) to start doing, because the fear guides me to what is most exciting, challenging, and eventually rewarding to accomplish in my life. I’m getting closer to the point that when my mind starts generating fears, I get a bit excited.
Suggestions to “Do It Scared”:
- Resolve to do one scary thing per day.
- Ask forgiveness, not permission.
- Go for the unrealistic, not the realistic. If it was realistic, everyone else is doing it and what’s exciting/scary about that? And you may find it easier (less competition).
- Identify uncertainties (aka fear) about starting something and do it. Ignore the rest. If you don’t care about doing it or the outcome, what’s to fear and why even do it?
- Imagine the worst that could happen and then imagine how you could get out of it. It’s not so bad, right? (If it is so bad that you can’t get out of it, then don’t do it. Or do it crazy scared and who knows? See doing the unrealistic above.)
- Start doing the things that excite/scare you now. There is never a perfect time to start, so start now.
- Don’t plan to retire. Do the things you are putting off until retirement now.
- Don’t wait to reach some monetary goal like becoming a millionaire before sailing around the world. Do you really need a million to do that? You will find that you only need to have much less.
Live your life as fully and as exciting as you wish. Even if something seems scary to start, do it now and do it scared!