In a team call, all of our teams are invited into a 'zoom' meeting (kind of like Facetime but with multiple people!) by the person who's hosting it (in this case ME) to listen to that particular coach talk about whatever it is they think the other coaches can learn from them. Though I'm a newbie I hit SC 14 my first month as a coach, and rank advanced to emerald in my first week- pretty big in the Beachbody world! So when Brian suggested it, I knew A) That I was terrified and B) That I had to do it. What an honor for one of your mentors to think the whole team could learn something from you! And you know my life motto...
Anyways, the call last night! For the last week and a half I went through all the stages one can expect when doing something outside of ones comfort zone - excitement - fear - denial - acceptance. haha. I wrote a speech, read it out (roughly, as if I was talking to real people out loud with point cards) then listened to the recording). Only by the day of the call trying to prepare just made me panic- I felt like I could not remember anything I had been memorizing. I decided to do as Stephanie does, and throw caution to the wind and just WING IT! Ironically enough, this was basically the baseline of my topic of choice- "The importance of acting like a top coach, and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable" Ie: "FAKE IT 'TILL YOU MAKE IT!"
I'm not going to go into the details of how I have been advancing my business on my blog, but I thought this topic was also relative to health, fitness, and all things in between!
In the present, I still consider myself to be shy. For the most part have learnt to 'shake it off'', though. I have learnt fake confidence is just as good, if not better than real confidence. After all, a little bit of humanity shining through is OK! We all have our quirks. I have gone through so much uncomfortable things in my life! When I was 18 and my daughter was first born I pretty much didn't even know how to cope with a crying baby in a grocery store. All things scared me. Like i'm not talking a little bit of anxiety. I suffered from full blown, debilitating social phobia. Everything scared me. Just leaving the house was a chore for me and I avoided it at all costs. I lived in a shell. Numerous trials on anxiety medications, which was traumatic in itself, because my biggest fear of all was going to the doctor, brought me no alleviation of my fears. I came to terms with the idea that my life would be like this forever. I thought I was a broken girl.
Then the most horrible and amazing thing happened. I got pregnant with my daughter (Summer) and due to a high risk pregnancy, would spend the next 8 months in and out of the hospital, in and out of ultrasounds (3-4 times a week). This was traumatic. Every time I had to go to these places, this fear would bubble, and my heart would race, and I couldn't breathe. I probably would have avoided it if it had an option, but the health of my baby forced me way out of my comfort zone, over and over to face my biggest (mostly irrational) fears. The crazy thing? As the months went on, my anxiety faded away. The hospital, my most dreaded place, became a uncomfortably, comfortable routine.
When Summer was born I was blessed with two gifts- her survival, and my healed anxiety. I kind of feel like being in such a high risk situation saved my life, and after you go through months of being scared and helpless everyday, the little things in life are still scary, but you realize you're strong enough to conquer.
That's how my life mottos were born:
-FAKE IT 'TILL YOU MAKE IT
-YOLO - you only live once
If your scared of something, that's ok, in fact its great. It just means your ALIVE! Live for your heart racing, learn to be comfortable with it! The more you push outside of your comfort zone, the easier it will be to do the crazy things that you will look back on and be like 'wow, I did that!' instead of 'I wish I did that...' I think everybody is scared of life- awkward situations, being embarrassed, failing, but you have to find a way to quiet those voices and just scream YOLO in your head, jump in with both feet, and go for something crazy.
My challenge to myself, is to do all the things that terrify me. I love the feeling afterwards, when you are terrified, but you put self-doubt aside, and jump in with both feet, and do the impossible, it's an unbeatable adrenaline high! I think that's what life's about!:)
xoxoxo
Steph
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