Being scared is part of being alive. Accept it. Walk through it.
"Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear."
This is a quote that has stayed with me since the day I first read it on some obscure self-help book.
It helped me remember how dangerous limiting beliefs can be, especially if you aren't aware of them.
They live rent-free in your mind and stop you from taking the leap.
I'll tell you a short inspiring story about a really successful entrepreneur and YouTuber in the fashion space.
His name is Jose Zuniga.
He's been making amazing videos about men's fashion for over a decade now, and they've helped me and millions of men dress and feel better.
On one of his top podcast appearances, the host asked him a really good question.
"When and how did you take the leap that helped you exponentially grow?"
He talked about how sooner or later, everyone has to make a decision.
You stay stagnant right where you are, or you stop being afraid of failure (and success) and do that very thing you know you should do, even if the odds are against you.
As they say, the devil hides at the crossroads, so you'll always be tempted to take the easy path and you'll somehow convince yourself that you don't deserve to make that big move.
But you have to. (And get to!)
You were put on this planet to live your own personal adventure, and the world would be missing out if you decided to turn around and go home.
And that's exactly what Jose decided not to do, turn around and go home.
Instead, he rented an office he couldn't afford at the time because he knew that in order to grow he had to leave his parent's basement and have a place of his own dedicated to his ambitious project.
Sometimes, in order to grow, you need more space, physical and mental.
Because just like a beautiful seed needs a lot of space to grow into a healthy strong tree, a big or meaningful idea needs more space to grow and develop into something tangible.
Everyone doubted our friend Jose, nobody believed in his ability to turn things around.
But despite the discouraging comments of his family and friends, he kept going.
And in under a year, he had 10x his business.
He had to make it work, so he did.
Failure wasn't an option anymore.
He had told everyone he knew he would make it happen.
The pain of disappointing himself, his family, and his friends was much greater than the pain of building a successful fashion business.
Success was also inevitable because his physical and mental environment was specifically designed to inspire him every day.
He had a decent office all to himself and he had to work hard to earn it.
Now he owned the most successful e-commerce business in his area, and because of that, he decided to start the whole process again and move to the Big Apple, New Your City.
There he realized that there are levels to the game, and he got humbled by the level at which e-commerce businesses played there. He went from being the biggest fish in the whole town to being the tiniest fish in the room, overnight.
The very popular quote “If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.” made so much sense to him now.
He understood that in order to grow he had to be stepping out of his comfort zone continually.
Now that he had officially moved to NYC he had to earn his stripes again and learn from those around him.
Life is on the other side of mediocrity.
Many people are alive, but few ever live.
And a good way to really live is to understand that life is really short so we might as well shoot to the moon.
At the end of the day, we can't take life that seriously, so why not try to accomplish that goal everyone tells you to avoid?
Why not?
Today is a beautiful day to gather some courage, penetrate through the fogginess of fear, and get to the other side of mediocrity, which is excellence.
In order to live a great life you don't necessarily need to build an empire.
Everyone has their very own definition of success, so as long as you feel deeply fulfilled, you're on the path to greatness!