Today there was something needing to get done which required me to leave the house and go talk to people.
Yes, talk to people.
No thanks!
I like people, but the whole introvert-social-anxiety-fear-of-judgment thing creeps up on me sometimes. It is clearly an issue which needs to be addressed in order for me to grow and make progress toward my goals.
But in my defense, I have come a long way already and I am fine when I’m actually in the situation, but it’s the dread beforehand which tends to hold me back.
Have you ever encountered this in your own life? The action or task itself is not that difficult or terrifying, but rather the anticipatory fear is what makes it hard to make any progress on these looming to-dos.
For anyone who has read the book The 10X Rule you may recall what Grant Cardone had to say about such fear:
I handle this dilemma myself by omitting time from the equation – since time is what drives fear. The more time you devote to the object of your apprehension, the stronger it becomes.
Grant Cardone, The 10X Rule
If we procrastinate, we prolong the inevitable while fueling the fear. This feeds and strengthens the dread while diminishing the chances that we’ll take the necessary steps to complete our task. Instead, as he suggests, we should starve the fear by quickly taking action on whatever it is that scares us.
I had these thoughts running through my head this morning as I put on my shoes and kicked myself out of the house. Unsurprisingly… it all went very smoothly, my dread was unfounded, and today’s problem is now behind me.
It worked.
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