Be bold and courageous

A winding road meanders through a snowy mountain landscape, bordered by towering cliffs and evergreen trees under a cloudy sky.

We are in the second month of the year and you might be thinking how quickly the first month of the year went. Or it may be the opposite for you. Don’t be discouraged if you have not started yet or if you are yet to start with putting your plans into action. The race is not always for the swift but those that endure to the end.

What have you planned to do this year that you have not started yet? Are you lacking in confidence to start or are you putting it off because something else keeps taking up your time? If you have been lacking in confidence then this edition is for you. I want to share how you can take that first step if you are lacking in confidence to make the first move.

In January I have been doing something that I thought I would only do once and that’s it. I have come to realise that over time I like to see what’s in front of me especially when I am driving. I don’t like driving behind any vehicle which is bigger than my car as it means I cannot see what is ahead of me. In most cases I have not been very generous in letting a van, lorry or bus in front of me even if I had the opportunity to do so. On the few occasions I let a vehicle bigger than my car in I can only see the back of the vehicle and cannot see ahead of me.

I discovered about three years ago that this applies to roads also. I like driving on straight, even roads without sudden dips or hills especially if they are unfamiliar. I was volunteering for an organisation three years ago and I thought it would be a good idea to check out the journey before the day I was needed. The journey there was fine no issue but on returning although I had taken the same route back I discovered that on the way back there is a point in the road where it feels as if I am going over a cliff because the road dips and before you get to the dip you cannot see anything. This created a lot of anxiety for me as I approached this section of the road that I almost stopped and turned around to go back the way I had come from and find another route from there. But I did not and once I got to the dip I realised it was ok I can do it as soon as I saw the road ahead of me. Since then, I have avoided that road because even though I did it I do not like the feeling I had when approaching the dip.

Well, I avoided it until end of December last year when I realised that I would have to go to a location twice a week using that same road. The first thing I did was look for another alternative route. I chose another route but once I put it in the SATNAV it took me to the same route I was trying to avoid. I decided to go with it as I definitely needed to be bold and courageous to overcome this anxiety I had on this particular route. I have done the route a number of times in the last month and I no longer have the anxiety I used to feel before.

What I am saying to anyone who has do something that they have not done before or they have done it once and thought I never want to do that again because of anxiety or fear then I want to let you know that the more you do it the bolder you become and you conquer the anxiety or fear you had. When I reflect on a few things that caused me anxiety in the past, I realise that it is because of the unfamiliar and the fear of doing it wrong and once I overcame that fear and did it I felt so empowered.

Whatever you have been putting off doing this year so far, take that step of boldness and do it and you will feel better for it.