Do It Scared

"Don't wait until you're not scared to do the thing you want to do. Do its scared." -Christy Wright

I read this and it totally stuck with me throughout my divorce recovery. Because I was scared. I was scared all the time, and so I didn't exactly have the luxury of waiting for a sign or a good feeling. They weren't coming. This quote gave me the push (and the permission) to do it anyway, whatever it was.

How do you do it scared though? What exactly does that mean? I wondered the same thing at first. I was in full-on panic mode. I was under the impression I literally had no skills anymore, that I was no longer capable of doing anything at all (even the stuff I was naturally good at). I was convinced I would never make money, never meet anyone, never be happy.

Convinced.

If doing it scared meant I had to abandon all that to go ahead and get started, it would never have gotten done.

So, here's what happened: I had to stop requiring evidence in order to do things. For instance, I took jobs during and after my divorce process based on my lawyer's suggestion to have "a place to be and a place to go". He knew I was in no shape to do real estate at the time, or at least rely on it full time. And he was right about that for a little bit I suppose. I didn't need that extra stress. I needed a steady income.

But here was the thing- Those jobs were meant to be temporary, just to get me through the worst of the adjustments. Instead, I let them dominate me. I bought into the idea that I couldn't do real estate by myself anymore. So, I joined another seasoned agent and became her number 2, so to speak.

I bought this "you can't" mentality in all areas of my life, letting everything that went wrong in my life reinforce my ideas that I couldn't do this or that. And as you might guess, I always proved myself right!

I was miserable. And I was still afraid. Until I decided to do it scared. I quit my job with that seasoned agent and went out on my own (again). With the help and encouragement of a mentor, I ended up surpassing my goal for closings and then some that year. And it was on my own.

The coolest part of this Do It Scared business is that it is contagious. When you show up for your life and you get positive results, you can apply that scenario to the next time you're scared. And then the next and the next. Your evidence pile shifts, and so do you. Eventually, being scared isn't as scary anymore. It's fuel.

Do. It. Scared.