Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

I struggle with the downtime after an adventure - I miss the movement, the intensity, the purpose - post-adventure/race/holiday blues set in.  

After RunAustralia, I have gone through this “loss” period again, but having experienced it before, I also know that this time provides an opportunity to look back for life-lessons and growth.  

There are so many things I’ve learned from my run across Australia.   

It didn’t all sink in while I was running - although I thought that with an average of 10 hours of running per day for 76 days I’d have plenty of time to think about life.   It’s been this reflective period after, that’s given me the opportunity to take the experience, match it to my knowledge and thoughts, and come up with either new understandings, more appreciation of my understandings or new viewpoints.

What I’ve been working on the past few weeks is my use of mantras, phrases, mottos, commonly used quotes, and determining what they really mean to me.

Over the next few blogs I’m going to take them, dissect them or, as the common phrase at the moment is “lean in and unpack them”, and share my experiences, and thought processes.

My aim is to clarify my thoughts on what I truly believe helps me with my mindset for my life adventures - running, university, book writing, adulting - and I hope they can help you too.

Just a note to both me and you - I’m in my first year of a degree in Sports Psychology and therefore at the start of my learning journey into the principals and methodologies of psychology. And although I think I’ve got an experienced grasp on mindset, I’m certain that I’m going to learn more and I may have to revisit some of the thoughts I’ll be sharing now.

It’s all good, it’s kinda the point - we know because we learn, and we learn through being taught and experience, and if we keep that curiosity and openness to “can we learn more” then I believe we can always be in a space to discover more depth and breadth in our abilities.

First up…

Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway

Holy moly I experienced a lot of fear running across Australia. Some fear was real and present danger, some fear was in my mind - I have quite an imagination, after-all I imagined that I could actually run across Australia 😊

The real and present danger was the traffic. I ran along the side of busy highways and motorways for the majority of the 4,000kms, and the traffic was coming at me at 110kms per hour.

I had a few k’s of respite from the road-trains, caravanners, and cars by running on old dirt roads and the dirt service road for the water pipeline that ran alongside the highway from Perth to Coolgardie to Norseman. But whilst these dirt roads were quieter, they brought up other fears - being alone in the middle of nowhere and seeing all the animal prints in the dirt - dingoes, kangaroos, foxes, feral cats, emus, birds, snakes. I was constantly looking out for what could potentially kill me.

That was just some of the fears.

I often started my running day pre-dawn in the dark and finished in the dark in the evenings. My heart would pound - about the aloneness, the dodging of traffic, the stepping into the bushy verges and what could be waiting in there for me.

The fear didn’t really leave me, and yet I kept going.

I learned that I could achieve my goal and still have fears - I didn’t have to wipe them out of my mind. They existed.

I learned that I really could “feel the fear and do it anyway”.

I’m now back in the UK, taking on my University degree, and whilst the likelihood of being chased by a dingo, swooped by an eagle, or being bitten by a deadly spider has dissipated, I still have fears.

Have I got enough money to pay my bills and go to Uni? This is very much a real and present danger and a work in progress to be a yes and not a no.

Have I got enough smarts to get me to the finish line of this adventure which is a degree (and a masters - yeah I’m doing the whole #thinkbigthendo thing)? I’m reminding myself that I was smart enough to get the points to get the offer for my placement at Uni, so I believe with work and effort I can keep on keeping on.

Can I fit training and adventuring into Uni-life? I know I’m going to try my utmost to make that happen because both goals are so important to me.

I am feeling the fear and doing it anyway.

Processes that help me

I journal about the goals and adventures that I want to achieve, and because they are usually pushing me way outside of my comfort zones, I look back and remember what I have previously done that shows me that I got through that, therefore I believe I can get through this.

For many (many) years I have been writing in my journal that “I am an adventure runner and I have run xyz…“. I list all the runs that I have done and I also write the runs I intend. I put them all together in past tense and write “I have run xyz…”.

It’s a mindset strategy tool of telling your brain what to believe and it influences the actions you take to make it real.

Over the past two years (since I decided I wanted to go to Uni) I’ve been writing “I’m an adventuring psychologist and I have run .. and I write, speak and coach sports psychology”.

My journal sentences are getting longer and longer as I complete more and more - and surprise, surprise I’m still adding to it.

My self-belief increases as my self-accomplishments grow regardless of my fear - it’s a beautiful upwards spiral.

I’m going to write more about “failure” fears in my next blog. I hope you stay tuned.

x Nikki