“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure; the process is its own reward”
-Amelia Earhart
Concept:
Fear is a natural intrinsic primary reaction – courage is a decision on how to react. Eleanor Roosevelt would challenge people to do one thing that scares them everyday. As a small child, we would do this, testing our boundaries. There comes a time we must test the boundaries of our fears – the more progress we make, the more ground we cover and the more the grip of fear and anxiety loosens.
Consequence:
Mike Tyson’s mentor would extol many stoic philosophies but his chief belief was how the coward and the hero feel the same fear, it is how they react to that fear that makes them different.
Nobody with an anxiety disorder can be defined as a coward. The adversary may appear invisible, but it is there and takes the form of our reaction to triggers.
One of the consequences is avoidance. This can be places or situations that we associate with the anxious episode that can develop our existence into ever decreasing circumstances.
Skill:
What we should rationally do is deliberately challenge ourself to overcome the trigger (reframing the irrational belief) and moving towards anything we associate with avoidance.
Just as when we were that small child testing the boundaries, break the challenge down into smaller challenges. Any progress should be considered as a measure of success until we have overcome the action completely.
Any setback should be re-framed as a positive part of the process, you can only have a setback if you were making progress at the time.
Walk to that next landmark, the level of progress is incidental if some progress is made.
This is one of the skills that can change your thinking and life when achieved.
Action:
Do
Difficulty:
Medium-Hard
Speed:
Fast
Other Compatible Coping Skills
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