One of the less acknowledged benefits of being bold and doing things that are scary to you… is that it can forever change your perception of what “scary” is.
As a martial artist, you don’t often remember the “comfort zone” fights, when you’ve sparred or worked against people who were easy for you to compete against. But, you definitely remember the biggest, baddest, toughest opponents you ever had to face down.
As a recreational basketball player, I can’t tell you much about the recreational games I play week to week with the other recreational ball players. But, I can definitely tell you about the competitive games I’ve been playing against dudes who hoop at a seemingly D1 level.
As an occasional long distance runner, I can tell you that 8k used to feel like a lot. That is, until I ran a half marathon. Which felt long until I ran a marathon. Which still feels really damn long… but, definitely more doable after I did a 50k.
See, “scary” is defined in relation to your other worldly experiences that you’ve found to be scary.
But, when you lean into the scary, do something relatively bold, or just take a leap way outside of your comfort zone altogether… sure, some of the consequences might be to panic, get rejected, or to fall…
But, another key consequence—that shouldn’t be ignored—is that your definition of what’s “scary” might be forever rewritten.