What is fear stopping you from doing? What does facing your fear look like?
The children’s film Sing is one which is always guaranteed to make me cry. (See also, The Good Dinosaur đ). Always for a different reason. Johnny’s dad finally being proud of him, Rosita struggling to not be just ‘mum’, or Meena facing her fear and singing in front of a crowd. If you haven’t watched it, I totally recommend it. Although I have potentially ruined it with all those spoiler. Sorry! Be warned, this blog contains plenty more!
So, the whole premise of the film is that animals are taking part in a singing competition. Think Britain’s Got Talent, but with animals. At the beginning they have to audition and Meena, an elephant who we know has a great voice, tried to sing but can’t. She ends up helping backstage and no-one realises what a beautiful voice she has. Long story short, towards the end she is overheard singing and Buster Moon (the owner of the theatre/host of the singing show) encourages her to sing. She closes the show and it is epic – Tori Kelly does the voice so it really is stunning.
When Meena is nervous Buster gives her some advice:
“Just start singing. Once you do, the fear goes away.”
Meena was desperate to sing. She loved to sing. But fear stopped her. Once she stepped out and started to sing, she shone. She stepped out and it was like she was being who she was created to be.
I found myself wondering, is fear stopping me from doing something I love?
A book I love, which really made me think a lot about this idea of stepping out whilst feeling the fear, is The Discomfort Zone: How to Get What You Want by Living Fearlessly by Farrah Storr. So often we talk about stepping out of our comfort zone and I love the idea of stepping into the discomfort zone.
In an interview with Harpers Bazaar, Farrah said, “You’ve really got to force yourself into the discomfort zone. I’m not saying throw yourself into something really scary, but identify what it is that scares you most and then come up with a plan for how to get through that.”
I don’t think it’s quite as simple as Buster said. The fear doesn’t just go away when we start something. But, the more steps we take to face those uncomfortable things which cause us fear, the less we’ll fear them. I love the idea of being able to make a plan for facing fear. I do love a plan. It’s possible for us to identify the things which scare us and create steps to get through those things.
The other thing about Meena’s story is that she had a crowd to cheer her on. Her family were her biggest fans and Buster saw how great she was and encouraged her to face her fear. Part of our plan to step into the discomfort zone should include figuring out who our encouragers and challengers are. How can we ask those people to support, and challenge, us as we step out?
Personally, I think it’s such a rush to take steps to conquer fear. To be able to look back and see how far I’ve come on my journey to discover more of who I am and what I love.
So, today I wonder, what thing do you absolutely love but are scared of doing?
What would be the first step on your plan to step into the discomfort zone and face that fear?
Because, how good is it going to feel when you feel less fearful and just more able to do that thing which you love doing?!
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