A response to – Face your fears…….

I received this response to my last blog on being the ‘just do it woman’ and it is such an amazing reply that I hope you don’t mind it being given a blog of its own.

From Russ

This reminds me very much of the fear that I faced in 2009.   In 2008 I bought a new 600cc motorcycle, ( midlife crisis attack….lol ) As I already had a 125cc motorcycle and passed my motorcycle test, it was great to get to and from work on, superb on petrol at £12 a full tank giving me about 270 miles to the tank full, but now I wanted to move on….again.
A bigger more faster ride, one where I `dreamt` of using to go farther afield, Europe!
The seed was planted. South of England, over to France, travel through Europe, who knows, maybe around the world.

`Fantastic, great, exciting`!
(insert the sound of the needle being scratched across the record here),
`What if I get lost? The bike breaks down? I don`t speak the language?
I run out of money?????. FEAR CREEPS IN.
That’s it I`ll stay in England. No need to go down South, I can ride around the North, not far from home.
FEAR had arrived, complete with baggage and was staying for a long time.
So there I was, dreams of being the next Ewan McGregor or Charlie Borham, (depending on your tastes) riding off round the world had come crashing (no pun intended) down to earth with a huge bang.

Step in `Just go for it` Gill. `You don’t have to go on your own, look for some help and support`. `You `CAN DO IT`. We checked out the internet, and there ( music of enlightenment now plays) in front of me is a guided tour company. I challenge the FEAR and grip it by its controlling neck. `I`m going to do it` `I`m going to go on a guided tour group`. We researched the company. All good. Spoke to the tour guide, (Pete), all good news. I decided there and then on the phone to him, to go along. I paid the deposit and booked my place.

`I`m off to Europe at last`. I told Gill. I’d finally done it. She was so excited for me, and she said, `How does the FEAR feel now?` The FEAR! The FEAR which really has stopped me doing a lot of things in the past? It had been defeated. The `FEAR`s` bubble had been popped, not mine. It didn’t seem so BIG after all. It was not this overpowering bully anymore, it had been given a sharp kick in its own pants. It was shown the door. It was thrown out of the doorway of my life and was seen scurrying down the path. It felt fantastic, like a huge burdened weight had been removed from me. I was smiling like a Cheshire cat-like in Alice in Wonderland.
Later on, the `FEAR` tried to wheedle its way back in.
`What if you break down`?
`Run out of money?`
`What if you lose the riding group?`
`Oh don’t go, stay here with me, we`ll be safe`.
I stood up to it, faced it straight on.
`I have breakdown and repatriation cover. I have a credit card. I have a satnav`.
It kept bombarding me, and trying to plant its `NEGATIVE` thought seeds into my head, but this time I was using my `POSITIVE` `seed` killer and digging them right out of my head.
The `FEAR` started to shrink, like the wicked witch in the end of `The Wizard of Oz`, it was withering and dying, pleading to be let in to stay, but I was getting stronger and realising that a `DREAM` was now becoming the `REALITY`.    I told a work mate, who also had a motorcycle what I had done and I saw myself in him. He wanted to go but kept putting up the reasons (excuses) why he couldn’t go. I told him all about my battle with my `FEAR` and how easy it was in the end to stand up to it and not let it tell us what NOT to do.

Six months later I`m sitting on my bike, packed up with all my gear, on the quayside at Dover waiting for the boat to France. Seventeen motorcyclists in all on this guided tour going to the South of France and back in a week via the Millau bridge in the sky. Fifteen of motorcyclists I’ve never met before.

`You said it was seventeen before` I hear you say. That’s right. Fifteen of them I did not know, plus myself, plus my work mate.

                               The `FEAR` had been squashed by us both.

It was the best experience of my life. So much so, that now, this year, I`m traveling on my `OWN` from home to the far side of Spain, on my bike. I would not of done all of this without the help and support of one person in my life who has said to me from the start `JUST DO IT`.                                                 Thanks Gill.xxx

To me this writing is about one persons courage to face their own fear and by doing so, they have changed their own perspective of fear. What is also amazing is the ‘ripple’ effect that changing your own attitude can have on others, it meant Russ’s work mate faced a new challenge too, rather than hiding behind excuses.
So find your way through your challenges, find your support and there will be others who benefit from your change in heart.