“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” — Helen Keller
The whole point of starting this blog was to document my fitness journey and to hold myself accountable. As my following grew on here and through social media, I realized that I had to step up my game. I’ve tried all kinds of scary things over the years. I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone. Now it’s my turn to challenge you.
What are you afraid of? I want you to think about what you’re afraid of and then conquer it. If you can’t think of anything, I’m going to dare you to do 7 scary things. The time for being a coward is over. Nobody wants to be a little bitch.
We all have our own comfort zone and fears that scare us. We all have something that we’re nervous about. A big part of getting in shape and feeling on top of the world involves confronting your fears for once!
I want you to conquer a few of your fears and do something scary within the next 30 days or else I have failed as a motivator, blogger, or whatever you want to call me.
Some of these will be easy for you. Others will be scary as hell. It depends on what you’ve been doing your whole life prior to meeting me!
Here are 7 scary things I dare you to try!
1. Approach strangers in public.
Have you met anyone new lately? Have you ever approached someone that you were attracted to in public when sober?
I dare you to get into the habit of approaching strangers that you’re attracted to. Do it. Don’t think about it. Don’t make up excuses. Don’t be a stuttering dork.
So many of us have a fear of opening our mouths that we never end up saying anything. We watch strangers pass us by that we want to approach. Yet we don’t. We do nothing. It’s pathetic.
I want you to start meeting new people and approaching strangers.
Will you fail miserably? OH HELL YEAH!
I’ve made a fool out of myself approaching strangers. But guess what? Crashing and burning will always beat the alternative of doing nothing.
Get into into the habit of crashing and burning. Some strangers will be so impressed. Others will be offended. Who cares? I laugh it off. I have a great laugh every time I think of one of my many failures. When you do succeed and make new friends (or meet your girlfriend!) you’ll be wondering why you never started sooner.
The obvious caveat is that you can’t be weird about this. Don’t make anyone feel uncomfortable and try to get good at reading a room.
2. Try a different style of eating for a week.
Eating different food doesn’t sound scary, but it actually is for most of us. We’re all so boring (myself included)!
You can check out my vegan challenge. I went WAY outside of my comfort zone and put the meat away. I tried to eat no meat for an entire week. It was pretty hectic to be totally honest with you.
What’s the point of this? To step outside of your comfort zone once again. It’s okay to try new things. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just food.
This is your chance to try vegan, all-meat, caveman, keto, extreme fasting or any other type of eating style that has fascinated you.
3. Enter a physical competition.
Have you entered any sort of physical challenge?
That’s a free picture of me running in a half-marathon. Guess what? I hate running!
I showed up to the run and hoped for the best. I survived and managed to somehow. I love the thrill and the rush that I got from these physical challenges. I’m ready to sign up for more now.
The goal is to keep on playing. You don’t have to stress about winning or trying to set some sort of record. You just want to see if you can do it.
I want to see you enter some sort of a physical competition. It doesn’t have to be anything outrageous or a fight in the UFC. It can be really simple.
4. Start a blog.
Do you have a lot of ideas? Do you have views you would love to share with the world? Are you dying to share some stories?
Start a blog and let the world know what your thoughts are on a specific subject.
You can sign up with Bluehost right now. You can also read my tutorial on how-to start a blog.
Don’t worry about perfection, monetization, SEO, or any of that stuff. Just start a blog. Start writing. See where it takes you. Blogging has led me to Fox Business News, NY Times, and meeting all sorts of interesting characters.
Start a blog and share your ideas with the world. You never know what might come out of it.
5. Push past that painful point.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
It’s so easy to give up and walk away. It’s important to get into the habit of pushing past that painful point. Once you start, don’t stop.
For example, there have been numerous times at my gym where I walked into an MMA class that I clearly wasn’t ready for. I could’ve ran away, but that wouldn’t do me any good.
You have to get into the habit of overcoming the painful point and seeing what’s on the other side.
6. Try something that you’re bound to fail.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison
“3 plates on each side for deadlifts. There’s no way in hell I could do that.”
That’s all I was thinking at the gym a few months back when my buddy loaded up the bar. I thought that I was going to fail miserably. I still went for it. What happened? I lifted it a few times and dropped it. Somehow I was able to be successful despite thinking in my head that I would fail.
I thought that I was bound to fail, but I didn’t. I survived. I’m here writing about it.
Your challenge: go into something knowing that you’re going to fail. Allow yourself to fail. Then see what happens.
7. Go places alone.
Have you actually gone anywhere alone?
Seriously — have you hit a party or done a trip alone?
I used to think that only losers went out alone or traveled solo. Then I started doing it! So now I think that cool people do it.
We’re so accustomed to hanging out with the same group of friends and doing the same thing, that the thought of doing anything alone terrifies us. I want to see you go somewhere alone. This could be the gym, a trip, the movies, or even a night out on town. Don’t be afraid!
Which one of these scary challenges will you accept?