On the Importance of Confidence

Two things, quickly, to open. The first is a quote from Neale Donald Walsch – “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

The second is a quick piece of advice from one of the smarter people I know, and one of the people I asked to take a look at the first draft of this post:

(The other person I showed the draft to was my good friend and epic editor/writer, Jackie. You should totally check her out.)

You see. The first draft of this post was all about my Goal Check In Day and the paralyzing feeling that I get that I’m not good enough at my job. I’m plagued by these feelings of inadequacy, especially because I’m constantly doing things I’ve never done before. And I realized something. It’s not because I legitimately suck at my job; I’m actually very good at it. It’s because I lack the confidence necessary to carry me through the feelings of uncertainty.

What Walsch and Patrick point out is that those feelings of terror, of absolute uncertainty are necessary to the process of growth. If you’re not scaring yourself on a regular basis, then really, what are you doing? I’m not talking about the feelings of fear that come from doing something you know to be dangerous, unsafe, or really stupid but the feelings of fear that come from pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. Which, really, if you think about, is the scariest thing that we can do.

The comfort zone is necessary. It’s where we feel safe; where we can retreat to when things become overwhelming. But it is not where we should live. Humans have always quested for more and we would be doing eons of evolution a disservice if we stopped pushing ourselves. Who knows what will happen if you take that next step? I can tell you exactly what will happen if you don’t. You’ll stay where you are and where’s the fun in that.

Here’s the most clichéd thing I could ever say in a post like this – What’s the worst that could happen? Failure? Failure is incredibly scary. But, here’s the tricky part, it’s not the end of the world. It may feel like it. Trust me, I know how much failure can feel like the end of the world. I have a whole post written about my fear of failure that I’ll save you from reading. However, that shouldn’t stop you from taking that step that you’ve been contemplating because, at the end of the day, you’ll probably be sorrier that you didn’t.