I was recently asked how do I get the courage to do some of the things that I’ve done by myself.

I told one person that I had to go in baby steps.  I used to be scared to go anywhere on my own.  I started small by going to the movie theater by myself.  I went in the middle of the day when I knew there was not going to be a lot of people there.  Now I actually like going to the movie theater in the middle of the day by myself.  Its like I have the movie theater to myself.  That led to being a solo travel nurse.  I was freaking out inside before doing those things but I wanted to do them anyway.  I wanted to be a travel nurse ever since I wanted to be a nurse.  I love to travel.  If I was scared to do things on my own, how was I going to become a travel nurse.

Like my life coach told me, courage isn’t the absence of fear.  Courage is having fear but still doing what you want.

I had to learn to acknowledge the fear.  Before I did my very first open mic poetry reading, I was so nervous.  I had invited some friends.  I was contemplating on not showing up because I was so scared but I also wanted to do it.  So before I got on stage, I had a talk with my guardian angels and told them to help me.  The fear was still there but it had lessened.  After doing my performance, I felt great.  I had faced my fear of public speaking.

Before I went skydiving recently, I was so nervous.  I was actually looking to do indoor skydiving because I had seen one of my Facebook friends do it.  The skydiving place was just 15 minutes from where I was staying.  I just decided to do the real skydiving.  The night before I went, I couldn’t sleep.  I was scared and nervous.  I literally talked to my fear inside my head.  I asked what I was scared of and why did I feel that way.  After I did that my fear lessened.  I was able to go to sleep and rest.  The next day I went skydiving.  Before they let me go skydiving, they wanted me to watch a safety video.  My feared came back.  By that time, I had already paid so I was going to go.  There was no refund at that point.  I had another talk with my fear.  Stepping out of the plane at 13,000 feet was scary.  I didn’t want to back out.  So I closed my eyes and let the instructor lead me.  It lasted probably 10 minutes.  I realized that my fear of the event was gone.  I had a lot of fun flying through the air.

I haven’t regretted doing something that I wanted to do but was scared to do at first.  I now use that fear to my advantage.

I was freaking out inside but I did it anyways.