I hope you had a great week. In this week’s email I want to talk to you about FEAR. We all have it. What we do about our fears is another thing, but we all have it in some way, shape, or form. It’s that one thing that holds us back from doing certain things in life or pursuing certain opportunities.

In my Power Productivity Program, I describe fear as “future perceived pain.” In other words, it’s the “I’m not going to do _______ (insert opportunity here) because I might _______ (insert pain here).” Pain could mean physical pain, rejection, embarrassment, judgement, loss, etc.

What’s funny about fear is that a lot of times we don’t even realize we’re in fear. In other words, we don’t consciously recognize the fear. Instead, we just say “no” to something and move on without realizing how a certain fear is holding us back from something in life. Usually that “something” brings joy to our lives but it’s disguised as “fear” upfront.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because last week I was presented with an opportunity that made me face my own fear.

What was the opportunity and what was the fear?

The opportunity was to participate in a live event and my fear was public speaking. I know, I know, some of you might be reading this and saying “Alejandra, you love doing videos! You’re great at public speaking!”

Well, that’s a hard one for me to see. My whole life I’ve feared public speaking. In fact, as a child in school, I never raised my hand out of fear of everyone looking at me. The ocean scares me like none other, and the thought of going on a kayak (even with a life jacket) in a reservoir gives me anxiety.

When my friend Ariana emailed Ed and I about going kayaking with her and Leo (her husband), I silently said no to myself while getting anxious by the thought of participating in water sports.

A few minutes after I got the email, Ed walked into my office and goes “Did you see Ariana’s email about kayaking? That sounds so fun!” In the back of my mind I was thinking “Ugh. I knew Ed would want to go. What do I do now? Convince Ed we can’t go have fun because I’m too scared?”

I’ve done that before and it holds us back from experiencing fun things in life together as a couple.

This time I thought about the opportunity and fear again. I asked myself- what am I really scared of? What is really holding me back? When I asked myself that and realized I had no good realistic answer, I said yes to going.

I said yes to facing my own fear. Even though I’m terrified of water and I can’t swim, I’ll go kayaking. The worst thing that could happen is the kayak flips over and I fall into the realllllly calm water while wearing a life jacket. And if that even happens, I’ll be surrounded by a group of people who will save me if I accidentally go under water.

However, that’s not going to happen! That’s my own fear talking for me.

And if it did, so what, Ed pulls me back into the kayak and we continue on! Plus, it’s not like I’m kayaking on my own, Ed and I are going in a double kayak together (even easier).

And so we all went kayaking last weekend and had a BLAST!!! It was so much fun! I would totally do it again (it’s not scary at all) and if anything, it was yet another great reminder of how fear once again creeps up and tries to hold you back from living your best life…. if you let it.

Here’s a picture of us kayaking with our friends Leo & Ariana:

Imagine if you didn’t let fear hold you back in life- what would you accomplish? Who would you be as a person? What would your life be like?

In the next 7 days, I challenge you to do something you fear. It can be anything.

If you fear talking to strangers out of embarrassment, walk up to a total stranger and start a conversation.

If you fear picking up the phone and calling someone out of rejection, pick up the phone and make contact with that certain someone.

If you fear going to the gym and looking silly, show up to the gym and try your best.

Just do one thing you fear. Anything. The goal is to give yourself that reminder that on the other side of fear is joy, pure joy. And if you can get past the “upfront fear”, you can experience the joy that follows.

Anyway, that sums up last weekend and my run in with fear.