Feel Fear and Do It Anyway!

“Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” is an old book I always remember my parents having on their book shelf. I think I took a poke through it as a teenager, but though I never fully read it I often think of the statement!

I went for a kayak this week out to the estuary with my friend Karen and Richard, a multisport coach. Karen and I have just learned to kayak within the last year, me only in the last 7 months. Karen started kayaking and completed her first Coast to Coast this year and both of us completed the kayak sections of the Gold Rush down south this year. So I’ve been on moving water about 7 times now and on the estuary a bunch of times. We decided that having a coach take us out for a few lessons would be great and so here we were with Richard for lesson number one.

I have to admit that I was feeling pretty tired that afternoon, but it was sunny and beautiful out so I was doing some positive self talk to pick myself up for the session.  After 15mins playing on the estuary in our kayaks (very calm day on the water) Richard asked if we would be keen to go out into the surf around Shag Rock. I said yes, but meant HECK NO!  So Richard being his positive chipper self said “the worse that can happen is we’ll fall in.” As Karen makes the comment taking lambs out to slaughter (pretty funny coming from a vegetarian), I’m thinking, she’s right, I’m making her go first! So as Richard seemingly calmly in his tipsy boat crosses into the abyss of waves (ok, I’m over exaggerating) Karen promptly follows on his tale. I sit their meekly…for one second too long and I’ve talked myself out of going. So as I sit there watching them pass Shag Rock into the surf I wonder, why am I being so scared? I’ve gone down rivers, Karen’s doing it, I’ve practiced flipping a boat in the pool, I know how to swim, I love the water, I love excitement, what is holding me back? Thoughts going through my head went something like this, Karen’s had more experience then me (ok, a few months), you’re a wimp and always have been, I’m tired and depressed (note, its beautiful and sunny outside and I’m in a kayak, what more could I want from that moment) and well it’s the fear of the unknown. Richard came back and said, “a little scared”, I said yeah and that I was ok to play in the estuary until they came back. So as I sat there in my boat for a moment, kayaking into a few of the rolling waves I thought back to an email that I sent to boot campers a month or so back that said “do something this weekend that scares you” and I thought right, I’m going! The worse that can happen is I get flipped and pushed around in the waves and so I headed out to meet them. And as we surfed in our boats and Richard taught us the art of the lean and brace when side onto the waves. Well, we did fall in and a few times each! It was cold, but with each flip into the water we darn well know what we were doing wrong and it was the best if not only way to learn.

So though this doesn’t mean that I’m going to be kayaking grade 5 rivers, doing 10 foot drops off water falls any time soon, it means that I came a bit out of my comfort zone and my mood and confidence in myself was boosted because of it. So get out there, it can be as small and saying something you are scared to say or trying a new sport/activity/exercise you’ve always wanted to try. We can all do it; it’s just facing the fear and doing it anyway!