Do Something That Scares You

I have read about people who believe in doing something that scares them every day.

I do not have time for that.  Also, it sounds super stressful.  That is a lot of things to be scared of.

But I do believe in doing something that scares me from time to time.  Heck, it’s half the reason I got into triathlons.  They still scare me a little bit, but they’re also fun. Sort of like rollercoasters, I guess.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I sing in a choir.  And usually, our soloists are paid professionals, but for the Christmas concert series, we have little solo opportunities.  I have never auditioned before because let’s be honest, I’m not good enough, comparatively speaking.  My choir has a number of members who are trained musicians.  And I have studied voice, but not as extensively as some of these people.

But I’m also not bad.  And it wasn’t the idea of standing up and performing in front of a group that scared me.  It was the idea of standing up and being compared to these other musicians that made me nervous.  I like to be good at things, and when I’m not good, I don’t really have the desire to put that out there and make it obvious.

So I wasn’t going to do it.  Then I decided, what the heck.  Why not.  Worst case, I don’t get the solo.  No big deal.

I don’t actually know how this story ends.  I won’t know til next week (probably) who got the various solos, but I’m not holding my breath.  Either way, I got up there and did it and held my own.  And that was the point.  Taking to a friend after the auditions,  she was there for the same reason – just to force herself to do it.  She didn’t care about the result, she was just happy with how the evening had gone.

So regardless of the outcome, sometimes sucking it up and doing something scary is worth it just the same.