Word of warning, I started writing this post at the beginning of July - I got a little side tracked!!!
Once again going off topic, this post was inspired by me revisiting a fear that many people share, including myself a number of years ago.
I will talk about what this fear was and how I conquered it, and then talk about another fear many of us share, and how my experiences have led me to now enjoy facing my fears almost to the point of becoming an addiction.
A huge part of a role as a Fundraising Manager is to represent your organisation in a wide variety of ways. One feared by many is that of public speaking, particularly to a large audience. Up until about 4 years ago, I very much hated public speaking. I didn't have any confidence in my ability, I was scared of the audience's response, and the nerves meant I was often rushed and garbled in saying what I had to say. All in all, it was an awful experience for me.
This all changed when I was attending a 24 hour festival style event for charity. For one reason or another, the voluntary committee needed some time filling on stage and a microphone was handed to me. Completely shell shocked, nervous and unable to do anything other than comply... I then proceeded to get on stage in all my glory and act like a prat. I quickly began to enjoy it, my confidence built, and my interaction with the audience meant I was getting positive feedback that people were actually enjoying themselves.
It was that very moment that I thought "I could do this. This is amazing!". Granted I was petrified and running on adrenaline, but it felt good!
So from then on, I've taken a much more "Gung-Ho" approach to my fears - if I'm scared of it, I'm going to face it, but more importantly, I'm going to enjoy it.
It all comes down to the "Fight or Flight" scenario in Psychology - when you are faced with a fearful situation, your body will always react in the same way - increase in heart rate, breathing rate, a flood of endorphines etc. The interesting thing is that reaction doesn't change, whether you run for your life or stand your ground. Ultimately, your decision to run from a fear is one made consciously, therefore, we can control how we react to it.
In a round about way,what i'm trying to say is that it's only a fear because we make it a fear, and that physical response to fear is actually something we can enjoy.
My personal example of this is heights. I'm petrified of heights - I clung on to my friend like a little kid on the way up the Eiffel Tower, and I always get the physical response to fear when I'm high up - but I learnt to control my Psychological response to height which means I'm still scared, but I enjoy it!
It fills me with dread.
Completely. Terrifies me.
Watch the video by following the link below but skip to 2:00 and you will see why. Even the video scares me!
I apologise in advance for the language - if you don't like the occasional expletive please don't watch the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz63_cp9ysI
But I love it! And I love it because I convince myself that my fear is irrational, meaning I enjoy the thrill that your body naturally puts you though. Because of this, I also LOVE Oblivion at Alton Towers. The ride lasts a matter of seconds, but it's great because I go through an emotional rollercoaster, as well as the physical one.
I absolutely have an apprecciation of why thrill seekers do what they do, and it's down to controlling your emotions and directing them in a positive way.
As a result of this, I've gone and put myself forward to do a sky dive with a few of my colleagues and supporters of The Air Ambulance Service - http://www.justgiving.com/LeapIntoAction I can only but encourage you to donate, and I'll upload the Vid of my dive if we hit target ;-)
Thanks for reading!
Dave
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