Facing Your Fears by Don Mann

Author:Don Mann
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510745773
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2020-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.”

—Louisa May Alcott

The challenges that fall outside our personal comfort zones will be quite different for each and every one of us. Something that is mundane and simple for one person, may be completely terrifying and exhilarating for someone else. A race car driver, for example, may find that driving along at 200 miles per hour on a track is a completely normal thing to do. But ask him or her to get up in front of a class and teach basic driving skills to strangers, and that same person may turn into a bundle of nerves.

Familiarity creates a feeling of ease and comfort, while doing things that we’re not accustomed to can often rattle even the most confident person. But that’s what getting outside your comfort zone is all about. It’s a chance to explore your own personal boundaries and find ways to push beyond them, which is where we find the most opportunity to grow and change.

Perhaps you’re thinking of starting a new business, training to run a marathon, or learning a foreign language. No matter where your motivations are found, the fears that come along with embarking on this new path are often the same. We wonder if we are smart enough, talented enough, or dedicated enough to see our goals through to the end. We weigh our chances for success closely before we take the leap, all the while hoping that we’ll land on our feet. We are in fact embracing our fear of the unknown with the hopes of it paying off by accomplishing our goals.

One of the first things that any Navy SEAL candidate learns when he begins Basic Underwater Demolitions/SEAL (BUD/S) training is to get comfortable being uncomfortable. In other words, they have to learn to abandon their comfort zones and embrace their fears if they want to survive BUD/S and eventually pin the coveted SEAL trident onto their uniform. For trainees, being uncomfortable quickly becomes the new norm and if they can’t find a way to adapt, they’ll exit the program in short order. But those who can learn to push themselves harder will soon discover that they can achieve things they probably didn’t even know they were capable of before they started.

This is a philosophy that will stick with a SEAL for his entire career, spurring him to leave his comfort zone on a regular basis in effort to evolve and grow as a warrior. A SEAL can’t afford to become complacent or content with his skills and training but must always look for new challenges and opportunities to improve instead. By accepting that being uncomfortable is simply a way of life, he learns to widen his personal comfort zone into new areas, while also expanding the things that he is capable of along the way.

Most people do not have a profession that by its very nature pushes them to get outside of their comfort zone on a regular basis. Instead, they have to choose to do so themselves from time to time.

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