Why You Should Just Do It Scared

I often have people come up to me and become genuinely confused when they find out I have anxiety but that I still do things like climb literal mountains. It sounds so contradictory. How can someone have anxiety and still find the space to do seemingly crazy things?

There are no guarantees of safety outside. The wild can feel unregulated and unpredictable at first, but like most things in life, there’s a pattern, and preparing for what you know, anticipating, and adjusting around what you don’t can take you places.

Still, when I tell other people with anxiety this, they tell me that it’s difficult because the anxiety doesn’t go away. I tell them I never said I made it all go away but that I used it to strengthen my problem-solving skills and achieve my own goals.

What I also want these people to know is that I am oftentimes doing things scared. It’s as calculated as it can be with the flexibility that comes from an altered mindset. I’ll be pretty nervous while on sketchy sections of new trails because I haven’t traversed it yet. However, they may have realized that fear comes from the unknown, but they don’t realize fear can be alleviated with knowledge and practically eradicated with practice and experience. It just takes a bit of convincing yourself that you’re capable of doing some pretty cool things.`