"If you believe the dragon of fear and doubt is real, you give it power" Robert Fisher
This Saturday, I am going to run in the Death Valley Marathon. I am excited about it, because the entire course is off-road and on trails through the desolate deserts of Death Valley. The course covers some of the most beautiful areas of the desert and I am looking forward to the isolation and opportunity to be in my own head.
It takes a lot of work to prepare for a marathon and I am feeling a little nervous as the day draws near. I worry that I may not have trained enough or that I may not be up for the challenge. About two or three days before every race I participate in I start to feel like I am not ready. I even think about skipping the event. The more of these events I do, the less ready I feel as race day arrives.
I train all the time and I am ready. So I wonder what it is that makes me nervous as race day approaches. Why do the seeds of doubt enter, when I know I am prepared. What am I afraid of? I am running for the joy of running. I do not train to win, I train to finish so I am only running to enjoy the feelings I get from finishing. I have nothing to be afraid of, I know I can and will finish this race.
Fear is an interesting emotion. By itself, it can either motivate or debilitate. I have found it to be most debilitating when it is coupled with doubt. When I am doubting myself and fear creeps in, I seem to suffer the most setbacks. Those are the moments when I feel like I can't do anything. It is in those moments when it feels like the shadows will overtake me.
Rising Above Fear And Doubt
I am often asked by others how I overcome my moments of fear and doubt. The first thing I do is remember who I am. If I can do that, then my fears and doubts subside almost immediately. Why? Because when I remember who I am, I become connected with my history. I have a history of surviving and succeeding. When I think about that history I remember that I can succeed. I see the similarities with the challenge I am facing and those that I have overcome in the past. Seeing the similarities gives me the hope I need to move forward.
When I am faced with fear and doubt, they seem very real. In my rational moments, I know they are illusions. So in my moments of confidence, I remind myself that I will never be free from these types of feelings. They will always surface in the moments when I need my confidence the most. They are tests against my confidence. As such, I have learned to appreciate them. When I feel them, I know that I am about to do something outstanding. Instead of giving in, which I admit to doing more than once or twice, I move forward. As I moved past the moments of fear and doubt, I move into moments of greater confidence.
It's funny how it works, but generally speaking, our greatest growth comes after our greatest challenges. I have learned to live with the moments of feeling unprepared. I know they will be there, so when they come I allow myself to experience them and learn from them. When I begin to feel them, I like to take inventory. I think about everything I have done to prepare myself and I begin to see that I have no reason to be afraid, and that I have no reason to doubt.
What Do You do?
How about you? What you do to overcome your moments of fear and doubt? Perhaps, an even more important question is what do you do when you give in to them? It happens to all of us. Sometimes fear and doubt just gets the better of us. I think what we do when that happens is even more important than the times when we did not give in to them. I can truly say that my greatest learnings came from the moments when I had to pick myself back up and put myself back on track. Those are the moments when I felt the best about myself. What do you think?
I look forward to hearing your comments.
Life is good!
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