So on the weekend I competed with my kids in the Qld Ninja Warrior competition. The organisers let me do my rounds with all the kids as I was the only Dad and the oldest competitor.

Ninja Warrior is a bit like gymnastics – quite difficult for someone like me who has never trained at this and is relatively old for this kind of sport.

Up until the weekend I thought I could not do the gymnastics rings where you swing across a series of rings with your whole body weight on your arms as you swing from the rings – believe me its way harder than it looks!

Plus on top of this I had the ultimate excuse – a shoulder injury = not so good for swinging across rings.

Facing Our Fears Under Pressure

Just as it was my turn to compete guess who turns up to watch? All the other competing adults. Now these are not your average athletes! They are all in their mid twenties, extremely fit and strong AND are THE actual Ninja Warriors who compete on the TV series – and it was a big crowd (this was a big comp) – all lining the wall ALL watching Matt… = max pressure!

In front of all of these people I suddenly thought to myself “I can do this” (even though I never had before) and as I stepped up to the rings everyone was cheering.

I looked out across not just a couple of rings but 9 spaced out the entire length of the competition area – I jumped for the first ring and just went for it – in full view of all the pro Ninja Warriors – and I nailed it! I swung across all 9 effortlessly! A massive personal best for me. Mass cheering, and mass relief for Matt (what an intro to these pro Ninjas).

It still blows me away what the mind can overcome and achieve under pressure! Talk about the mind being able to overcome anything. Before that I literally didn’t think I could do it – even my coach was amazed. So was my shoulder just my BS excuse?…mmm, it really got me thinking…

What Really Stops Us In Life is FEAR

So often we use BS excuses to avoid our fears; we avoid it by not taking action, and we avoid it by staying small and stuck.

For me personally I have often found the path to success is right through the valley of my fears. And knowing this I will often deliberately find ways to face my fears – like doing something I previously thought impossible in front of a live audience.

To create personal success and unshakeable confidence in ourselves we have to learn new things, push ourselves, admit we are beginners, get outside our comfort zone. We have to take risks, put ourselves on the line, learn to fail, speak up, be seen, be heard and learn to take “no’s” as well as the “yesses”.

For me to learn this, its always been about putting myself in front of people. As a naturally shy kid this is my big “fronting my fears head on”. So next time you see me up on stage you will now know one of the reasons why I am there.

So maybe ask yourself is there something you could put yourself under a bit of pressure to get some personal breakthroughs – is there things you are are putting off because you don’t think you can do because there is some BS or perceived legitimate excuse? (I’m too old, too young, too tired, not smart enough, not rich enough, don’t have enough time, I’m too shy, I cant do it because I don’t know how… etc )

Maybe you should try pushing yourself to speak publicly somehow especially if you are shy – just volunteer – join a networking group and ask to give a presentation – or ask us – get up on our stage and share your story of building or buying websites with all our students. I guarantee you will get both a buzz and awesome lessons out of it!

Just a thought… – and a little challenge too maybe!

Cheers,

Matt