I have always been laughably behind the times when it comes to technology. I remember running to my high-tech brother-in-law all excited to show him that I upgraded my flip phone to an iPhone 5! Only to be shot down with his remark “I just upgraded to an iPhone 7”.
As you can tell, I’ve never been the one to wait inline for hours to buy the latest and greatest. In fact, I’m so slow to the start when it comes to technology that they are practically giving it away by the time I make my “upgraded” purchase.
I think that one of the reasons why I am such a snail when it comes to this type of advancement is because technology intimidates me. Knowing which button to push or what program to install is not intuitive to my nature.
So, when it came to creating a blog for my new persona, “Meditation Mutha”, I dragged my feet for months. Every time I sat down to start, I would freeze with overwhelm, having no idea where to begin.
I consulted my brother, a highly skilled creative web designer, to see if I could lean on his expertise about the matter. I thought he might be able to give me some heavy guidance or even better, a step-by-step hand holding through the process.
But instead, he unknowingly gave me the best advice I could ever receive. “Youtube has everything you need to know in order to build your own website. You should try doing it yourself.”
This statement absolutely horrified me! I had visions of working on this project for endless hours, only to accidentally push the wrong button and permanently delete all my efforts.
Grudgingly, I thanked him and set out to explore the vast lands of Youtube videos. I quickly found out, to my surprise, that he was right. After one brief search, I found the perfect video to cater to my techno-challenged mind. Within 30-minutes I had the framework of my blog up and running and was on to all the pretty little details. My confidence for taking on this monster was booming!
More Youtube videos guided me on all the plug-ins (plug-in, what’s a plug-in?) And when I expanded to my full techno-capacity, I recruited some friends and family to help me over a few bumps. All the while growing as I learned from the gurus.
And then it was done…Aaaaah! “I did it!” I pronounced to my husband like a little kid. “That wasn’t so bad” I thought to myself with pride bursting out of my chest. I did it.
Yes, I created my own blog. But, the it I actually accomplished was getting over that awful “F” word, FEAR. Fear is something everyone faces, and in some cases it can even help keep us safe. But, when it paralyzes you from doing the things that you love or need to get accomplished, it can interfere with your daily life.
The first step to conquering your fears is to recognize that you have them. Just like a child turning on the closet light to make sure there are no monsters in there, once you shine the flashlight of awareness on the darkness of your fears, you may realize that they simply don’t exist.
The next step is to retrain your stimulus and response patterns in the brain. Living in your comfort zone keeps you frozen in your unconscious patterns. Doing something every day that scares you fires your brain in a different way that creates new mental pathways for flexibility and expands your capacity.
Step out of your comfort zone and work on becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable. When you form the habit of doing something that scares you daily, your courage will grow little by little. Soon enough, the barriers that once were holding you back will vanish and your potential will be limitless.
Making the bold decision to deem the “F” word powerless is one of the best decisions you can make to ensure future success. Everything that you want in life is outside your comfort zone. With intentional action moving towards your fears, your infinite powers will prevail!
I want to send my heartfelt gratitude to Jessica Hamel, Gregg Friedman, Mika Massuchio and Zachary Leighton for all their help and support through the Meditation Mutha blog development. Even if it was just to tell me to “push this button”, your wisdom blows me away!
Please let me know what you think of the site. I have to say I am pretty proud of it. Yippee! I did it!
2 Comments
Gregg
October 10, 2017 at 1:57 pmHi – I’m the “brother” mentioned above. Looking good! Keep the posts rolling, it will help with SEO 😉
Kimberly Goyette
October 10, 2017 at 2:09 pmThanks Greggers! Couldn’t have done it without your nudge!