A Scare a Day Keeps Failure at Bay

I was able to boost my confidence, become a more outgoing individual, and make a ton of new friends in as little as a week.  It was actually a lot easier than it sounds.  All I had to do was follow this simple piece of advice, “Do one thing everyday that scares you.”  The one thing that holds most people back is themselves and the fears they possess.  Whether those fears are irrational or not makes no difference.  Forcing yourself to confront them is the best way to get over them.  Once you start to question some of your fears the rest of them seem less scary than they once were.  Here is an example:

You stop at a local coffee shop on your way to work at the same time everyday.  Everyday you see the same girl going in to get coffee as well (ladies, imagine it’s a guy, you can be outgoing too!).  You always hope that some sort of crazy situation will come about where you two are forced to start a conversation with each other and just hit it off right away.  This of course never happens, and you never do anything about it, because you are afraid of how you will be received by this other person.  So everyday you see this “unattainable” person and you get a case of the “what ifs.”  That’s no way to live your life.  Here is a plan this individual can use the next time they are getting coffee.  Go up to the girl while she is still in line for her coffee and be completely honest.  Say “Hi, my name is _______.  I see you in here almost every day and I would really like to buy you your coffee this morning.”  That’s really all you need to do.  Most people will be so flattered by the offer and your honesty that they will be instantly impressed with you.  Yeah, it’s scary, but that’s the point.  Once you’ve done it you realize that it doesn’t need to be scary.

You can repeat this process as much as you want for as many different things as you can think of.  Figure out what scares you, and do it.

Here are a few of the things that I have done to scare myself and the rewards they have created: (S for scare, R for reward)

S: Walked over to the arts building on my campus and knocked on professor’s doors until I found one willing to help me create a minor I’ve had in mind for a while.             R: I now have a Graphic Design minor

S: Attempted to get on the roof of my dorm building through irregular means.             R: While I didn’t get to the roof, I’ve got some great stories of my attempts and made a few friends along the way.

S: Local television channel had open interviews for jobs (some on-air) and I decided to go.                                                                                                                         R: Not only did I end up getting a job, but while I was there I met an absolutely gorgeous girl (who was also there for the interviews) and scared myself again that day by asking her for her phone number.  I should hopefully be getting coffee with her sometime this week!

Go ahead and write about something you did that scared you, and the rewards it brought in the comments below.

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