Don’t confuse things that make you uncomfortable with things you should avoid
There’s this interesting thing people do - often as they get older.
Not all of us, but you see it in many.
We close doors to things in an attempt to simplify our lives.
We say, ‘I’m not going to go to conferences anymore.’
Door closed.
‘I’m not going to hot countries any more.’
Door closed.
‘I won’t go to dinner parties anymore. They’re silly.’
Another life thing closed.
But really, we’re doing it because those things make us uncomfortable.
And it’s not even that.
We do it because our thoughts about those things make us uncomfortable.
Challenging life events can often do this to us too.
Maybe you once had an unpleasant experience on a flight. You think about the event, and your visions about the turbulent journey make you feel uncomfortable.
You feel it as a mini-implosion in your chest and a warming of the cheeks.
So you want to live a life with less discomfort.
So you close doors.
‘No more flights for me.’
How clever you are.
But here’s the thing.
You saying NO to things that scare you limits you.
Doing this drains the colour from your life.
Doing this makes your world literally smaller.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about living an alive life - it’s knowing you can be free to wander the gloomy corridors of the world, even if you feel a bit icky.
You’re free to roam. You haven’t denied your ability to explore. You can talk to whomever you like and go where you want to go.
At least in most places.
You’re a wild adventure person.
This is living.
The more doors we close, the more restricted we make ourselves - both physically and psychologically.
The things we fear are almost always indicators:
They show us how to spark aliveness in us.
Scared to travel?
You must go, even if it starts with a walk to the local river.
Age is no reason to close doors.
We can always take small steps towards our fears, with our fears, in the arms of our fears.
When we begin to move and look directly and lucidly at the thing we fear...
We realise it was our greatest ally.
There’s one thing stopping you from being more willing to take the right risks in life: deep self-respect.
I know because I struggled to take bolder steps, and couldn’t figure out the bottleneck until I realised it was a self-identity issue.
Learn the 25 little daily habits I use that reinforce a powerful identity of self-respect in achievable daily steps.
My book shows you how (comes with 3 awesome bonuses):
Get the Art of Self Respect book bundle here.
“One of the best self-help books I’ve read in a long time. Alex exposes, in a clear and concise manner, the behaviors we should study, practice, and adopt to develop better self-respect. This, in turn, leads to earning respect from others.” - Jean Pierre
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