Why I hope something scares you today

If nothing in your life feels even a little scary right now, you might not be growing.

Think about the area of your life you've been dreading or putting off because it feels uncomfortable.

Maybe it's learning to invest.

Maybe it's finally looking at your retirement plan.

Maybe it's having a conversation about money you've been avoiding.

What if the discomfort isn't a sign to stop?

What if it's simply the feeling of becoming someone you've never been before?

Can you think of one area of your life where you became more confident without first feeling uncomfortable?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately because I keep noticing how something that once felt scary can eventually become completely ordinary. We tend to forget this because once we become competent at something, we forget what it felt like when we didn't know how to do it.

When I first learned to ride a motorbike, there were plenty of things that made me nervous. And even after I became quite comfortable on the bike, I moved somewhere where there was a particular hill that I found really intimidating. I didn't suddenly decide that the hill wasn't scary anymore. I just practiced it.

I went up. I came back down. I did it again. Once per week and then a few times per week. And eventually, through mindset and repetition, I learned that this was something I could handle.

The hill itself hadn't changed. My relationship to it had.

I experienced something similar more recently when I got back into a car after several years of not driving, and was driving on the opposite side of the road from what I was used to. The first time I drove on the highway I was sweating bullets! It felt like I was learning how to drive all over again.

But I did a little, then a little more. And eventually I wasn't thinking about every single movement anymore. My body remembered. I had created a new normal.

This is one of the reasons I don't think confidence is always something we need to wait for before taking action. Sometimes we develop confidence because we took the action.

Every time you move through something unfamiliar and discover that you are capable of handling it, you are giving yourself new evidence. You begin to know, through experience, that you can learn things, that you can figure things out, and that feeling uncomfortable doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong.

And I think this has much more relevance to our financial lives than we sometimes realize.

Learning to invest can feel scary for exactly this reason. There is unfamiliar language, numbers, decisions, uncertainty and, of course, the possibility of making mistakes. If you have spent years believing that you're "just not good with money" or that investing is something other people understand, stepping into this world can bring up a lot.

But you don't have to go from feeling completely intimidated to suddenly feeling like an expert.

You can learn one thing.

You can ask a question.

You can make one informed decision.

You can look at your finances for twenty minutes instead of avoiding them.

And each time you do, you are not only gaining financial knowledge. You are also building a relationship with yourself around money.

This is where I think the somatic piece becomes really interesting. When something feels uncomfortable, our first instinct can be to get away from the feeling. We avoid the account, close the spreadsheet, don't ask the question, hand the responsibility to someone else, or tell ourselves we'll deal with it later.

But what happens if you can notice the discomfort and stay with yourself anyway?

I don’t mean to force yourself through something that feels overwhelming. Also, do not ignore your intuition. And certainly do not convince yourself that fear is always a bad thing.

There is a difference between something being genuinely unsafe and something simply being unfamiliar.

Learning to recognize that difference is part of becoming more self trusting.

A small practice

Think of one thing around your finances that you've been putting off because it feels uncomfortable. Don't choose the biggest thing that completely overwhelms you. Choose something that feels like a stretch, but still manageable.

Before you do it, take a moment to notice what happens in your body. Maybe you feel tension in your chest, a knot in your stomach, an urge to distract yourself, or perhaps excitement mixed with the fear.

Rather than immediately trying to get rid of the feeling, see if you can stay with yourself for a few breaths.

Then take the small action you've chosen.

Afterwards, notice what happened. Not whether you did it perfectly, but what you learned about yourself.

Maybe you discovered that the thing you had been avoiding wasn't as difficult as you imagined. Maybe it was still uncomfortable, but you did it anyway.

Either way, your nervous system just received another piece of information:

I can do something that scares me and still be okay.

And the more experiences like this we have, the more our world can expand.

This is why I hope something scares you today.

Not because I want you to live in fear or constantly push yourself beyond your limits. But because I hope you continue to give yourself opportunities to discover that you are capable of more than your current comfort zone might suggest.

Sometimes the thing that scares you isn't telling you to turn around.

Sometimes it's simply showing you where to find the next level version of yourself.

Love,
Kristin
Your CentSomatic Coach

P.S. If reading this stirred something in you, a longing, a little spark of "I want that clarity," don't let it fade back into "later." The next step is simple: join our free Investing workshop. It's where we take that vision from your journal and show you how investing actually works, in plain language, at your pace, with your nervous system on board. Save your free seat here and take the first real step toward your financial freedom plan.