The Mojo Coach

Gillian Sutherland
Tel: 07525 201206
Email: info@themojocoach.co.uk
Web: www.themojocoach.co.uk
 

What would you do today? Right now, what would you do?

I wonder what life would be like sometimes if we had no fears, if we went back to how we were as children, and just tumbled into life without a panicking about what might happen.

Wouldn’t it be great to be free of all these worries and anxieties, to live fully and wholly without the term “what if...?” ?

Worrying is ridiculous really, when you think about it. In most cases, we waste time worrying about things that we really didn’t have to, but it’s the unknown, the things we never expected to happen, that are the true dangers in life. We can’t predict what is going to happen, and we probably can’t even conceive of some of what we may have to go through.

One of the many gems from Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen):

It may not seem like the most uplifting thought in the world, but my point is that worrying is futile; a waste of time and energy, both of which you may need later on when you get blindsided on that idle Tuesday. The best thing you can do in the meantime is build up your stress threshold so that you can cope better with all the curve balls you get thrown.

Easy to say, but not as easy to do, you may be thinking. I know,  and you’re right. Believe me, I have always been more than a little prone to worrying, I think too much, analyse everything, and at one point I completely lost trust in life itself. Existential fear, the worst kind - fear of life itself. If you’ve ever been there, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about, that constant state of anxiety and dread that keeps you awake at night.

It did however, eventually dawn on me that the worrying was  not really doing me too much good, and that by holding back, not ever taking a leap of faith again, I was missing out on too much in life. When you put up the barriers to avoid the pain, those same barriers will ensure you avoid the pleasure too. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, especially when you have been burned, to learn to trust again, and take a few risks.

Nobody likes to feel vulnerable, to put themselves in situations which may remind them of when they have been hurt before, but confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier, well-rounded person. 

Learning to trust again is a process, and one that many of us are still going through, but eventually you learn to see things differently. Perhaps you grew as a person, that what happened later down the line was evidence that it was the right thing. Maybe you learned to use what you went through to help others, so it ends up being for the greater good. Or maybe, as in Slumdog Millionaire, it was written.

Whatever beliefs we have, or meanings we choose to attach to what happens to us, we need to find your own way of making sense of the world, otherwise we can end up living in fear. I choose my favourite mantra, which gets me through the periods of uncertainty, “whatever happens it’s the right thing”.

I have also decided to start taking risks again, open myself up to new possibilities, and embrace the uncertainty that comes with tackling the unknown. After all, it’s good for building emotional muscle, and life is bound to be so much richer as a result. I had just forgotten to see it that way.

So, what do you choose for yourself?

And if you knew that everything was going to be ok (as it always is in the end), what would you do today?

Have fun with that.