On Living a Bold Life

Three Keys to Move Through Your Fears and Live a Life You Love

Over the last year, I’ve interviewed many people for the Discovering Courage Podcast. They are ordinary people who have found a way to move through their fears so that they can experience lives filled with purpose and meaning. They are doing things that scare them despite their fears.

I’m often ask them: “How were you able to move through your fears and self- doubt and find the courage to do the things that scare you most, anyway?”

The three responses I hear most often are: I listened to the voice of intuition, I did not want to get to the end of my life feeling regret about not having tried, and my purpose was greater than my fear.

These are sentiments I’ve felt at one time or another - as I took steps that made me feel vulnerable and followed paths that defied logic, and which scared me to death. The ability to tap into all three of these gifts has increased my success in stepping out into the unknown to live a more fulfilled life. Your ability to leverage these anchors will increase the likelihood that you will step into your courage, move through your fears, and live the life you know you were born to live.

The Gift of Intuition or Inner Knowing

Have you ever felt a strong knowing that you needed to do something? It might not have been logical or in character for you, yet you felt so compelled to follow through on the action that you did it anyway. Your inner guidance was so strong that it quashed your fears or doubts, it trumped reason, and it felt so right.

My move out of the US was based on a hit of intuition. I visited France for the first time in 2015 and that started the wheels in motion. I hadn’t known where exactly in France I wanted to live, but I could see myself living somewhere there.

In 2016, I returned to France in search of that perfect place. I visited the city of Perpignan, by chance, and I knew immediately. The feeling of freedom and aliveness I felt as soon as I’d arrived was surreal. I knew I had to live there. I had found my new home.

This unwavering inner knowing made me take action, face my fears, and move through them so I could satisfy this urge and experience that sense of aliveness every day. Today, living in France, this is my reality.

Another Portrait of Courage — Maria Stanfield

Maria Stanfield, who was a guest on the Discovering Courage Podcast, also speaks of feeling compelled to do something–share a secret she was hiding that could threaten her livelihood. Despite the risk, she did it anyway because she felt called to do it. Her story is inspiring and can help you see your fears and doubts differently. Click here to listen to that episode.

Thoughts of Regrets

It is my mission to help as many people move through their fears and self-doubts so they can experience what is most meaningful to them. Having done this myself, I know how rewarding it feels to go beyond the bounds of what feels safe and to live a bold life. I want everyone to feel this way!

I’m not quite sure how this mission found me, but my desire to be more and do more came about after the death of my dad. It was then that I realized I’d been merely going through the motions. That I was, in effect, wasting my life. I realized that my life would end too, and that my chance to do the things I wanted to do would also end. These images of regrets felt scary. Scarier than the fears that had kept me stuck in the uninspired life I’d been living up to that point. So I set out to live a new life.

After the death of my mom, I couldn’t find any photos of her where she was smiling a broad, life-is-good smile. In each picture, there seemed to be an air of sadness about her. After losing my parents, these two realizations–I’m wasting my life and Mommy never seemed truly happy– woke me up. They made me get serious about living a life that had real meaning, purpose, and joy.

Another Portrait of Courage — Yolanda Zimmerman

Yolanda Zimmerman is a bold soul who took a leap of faith. She volunteered in Africa in 2018. She saw the many needs up close and personal and felt that she could do more to help there, so Yolanda resigned from her job with only a few years to go before retirement. She left the US and moved to Niger, Africa to do mission work there. She said, “I did not want to go out like that.” Yolanda did not want to have regrets of not having done more. Click here to listen to her story.

Having a Purpose Larger than Your Fears

I’m determined. When I set my mind to something, I do it. So I was particularly surprised when I almost did not go through with publishing my first book, Growing Bold.

I’d been working with my editor on it for four months. I was eager to get the final version so I could share my story with the world and help others build their confidence, release their fears, and live the lives they were born to live. But when I received the final revisions from my editor early one morning in December, I froze. I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and thought to myself, You know, you don’t have to go through with it and publish this.

Having this doubt had been unimaginable one minute before I received those final edits. But when the ball was squarely in my court, and it was up to me to share my personal stories, there they were, fear and self-doubt, staring me in the face.

I had been wishing for and working so hard to produce my first book and it was ready for prime time, but was I? How could I be afraid to publish this book ironically subtitled How to Overcome Fear, Build Confidence, and Love the Life You Live? I was having second thoughts about sharing details of my failed marriage, of my struggle with weight, and of being unfulfilled at work. Perhaps I’d miscalculated my strength and underestimated the power of fear. I’d felt petrified and alone.

I got dressed and went into work. During the entire day, I kept telling myself, You don’t have to do it. You might disappoint the people you’ve told about the book, but they’ll get over it. I felt unsafe and alone. Cowardly.

When I got home that evening, after I’d eaten dinner, I asked myself one question that shifted my perspective on the whole matter. I asked myself, Why did you write this book in the first place, Patricia?

The answer: “to help others develop and grow and be true to themselves.” came quickly. It was that simple.

I knew that my unpublished book, filled with stories that could help people work through their fears, doubts, and inner blocks, would be a waste if I did not share it. I knew, in that moment, I had to publish it, come what may.

I’d rediscovered my purpose and it was greater than my fears and insecurities.

Another Portrait of Courage — Valerie McCloud

I interviewed Valerie McCloud a few short months after she founded her organization, We Stand Undivided. Despite her already jam-packed schedule, the uncertainty she felt in starting something new, and her fears and self-doubts, she recognized that her purpose was larger than all the forces that conspired in her mind to stop her. She pushed through and did it anyway. Click here to listen to her moving story.

What’s keeping you from going for what you want in life? Fear, self-doubt, uncertainty? Tap into your intuition, your desire to feel satisfied and not have regrets, and the passion in your purpose to move through those things that hold you back so that you can experience the life you know your were born to live.