Hey folks, Matt Horwitz – BreaktheFear.com, I hope you are doing well!I just got done one of my longest comfort challenges to date. It took me about 33 minutes. I just ran 3.3 miles, a little more than 5km, dressed like this [standing in my underwear].

And no, these aren’t’ running shorts. This is my underwear.

This morning I wanted to go for a run, so I started to put on my, you know, my shorts, my shirt, I started to get ready, and I thought, “Man, it would be so uncomfortable, and very scary to run in my underwear!”

I went through 2 residential neighborhoods and 4 main roads – and man, did so much fear come up before this because, I think one of the great challenges in life is overcoming that fear of what other people think about us.

Especially if you’re aiming for personal success, you’re really going to be doing things that are a lot different than the majority of people.

You really have to get to get used to, you really have to embody, you really have to overcome that fear and be able to be okay with not fitting in, not looking like everybody else, and not doing what everyone else does.

So I thought this was a great comfort challenge, but I’ll tell you what man – I was SUPER scared and I had these ridiculous thoughts this morning. And I was like, I’m currently family, and I figured, “Geez, what’s my dad going to think about me when he sees me dressed like this? What are my neighbors going to think? What if the cops come and I get arrested or something like that?”

All of these things just trying to hold me back and trying to make me conform, and try to make me fit in, but you know what – I DON’T & I wanted to, to embody that, I wanted to step through that fear, and I’ll tell you what – this isn’t like a typical comfort challenge, where you go in, boom, you do this thing that’s super uncomfortable, and then you get out. You’re really in this for a while, you know. It’s a half an hour.

In the beginning part the run, man I just felt exposed, I just felt like completely naked almost. I mean c’mon, these briefs are pretty small. And then I started to get a little bit warmed up, I passed some people in one of the neighborhoods. Some people said, “Hey, how’s it going?” They didn’t even notice, or maybe they did, and they didn’t care. Other people kind of looked and then looked away.

I heard some people laughing, I passed a lot of cars, but about 10 minutes into the run, I’m running down this one street and I just see this cop car turn the corner and just start coming to me, and I’m like “whatever… just keep running”, so I kept running and I think that the guy was just so confused he didn’t even know what to do, and just kept on going. He didn’t even stop.

All of these fears, all of these things that I thought were going to be scary, because, a lot of times, I mean 99% of the comfort challenges I’ve done are less scary than they seem to be beforehand. And the funny thing is I feel completely normal right now, because once you’re in it, it’s kind of easy.

The biggest fear is that sort of breaking through, that transition point between all of these fears, all of these ideas you think are going to happen.

You’re being called to do something, but you’re scared, other people are going to look at you, you’re going to be judged – all of this stuff. Who gives a shit ?!

What’s most important is that you feel all of that, you need to feel all of that, you need to feel that fear, you need to feel discomfort, so that in that breaking through that – boom – that’s where that growth lies, and then you just kind of embody it. And I’ll tell you what, after 15 minutes, I was like, “the hell, I don’t even care anymore.”

I was running by people, I was saying to everybody. When I would see somebody, I would just stare at them and wait until they looked at me, and then be like, “Hey! How are you doing? Good morning!”

I’m not saying that you need to go out and run in your underwear, because for some people it might not be that uncomfortable, and for others, it might be a little bit too much.

But what’s most important is to take this analogy: If you’re looking to aim for personal success, if you’re looking to achieve things, if you’re looking to grow, you’re going to have to do things that are different than the majority.

You’re going to have to stand out, and this is a great exercise to do that.

I’m Matt Horwitz, I hope you’re inspired, and I’ll talk to you guys soon!

https://breakthefear.com
June 26, 2012