The Fear-Facing Challenge That Will Open Up Your Life

I've been experiencing a lot of rejection lately. It comes with the territory of making bold sh** happen, but MAN. It just never gets easier.Or does it?The reason why I take rejection so hard is that I take each and every "No" personally. It's tough not to when this movement is so close to my heart. If I were coaching someone through this, I would tell them that it's all part of the process. For every 9 "No"s, there's one yes and all that...But it doesn't make it suck any less.What I've realized over the last year is that rejection is my #1 fear. Even higher up on the fear list than snakes. I'd rather kiss a snake than hear the word, "No," one more time.And even after all my experience with the R word, I just haven't gotten better at getting doors slammed in my face.I've found that since I fear rejection, I often end up putting every action that threatens rejection on the backburner until they're all back there... leaving me with nothing left to do but get them all out of the way at once. This makes the process SO much worse.The "No"s roll in in buckets. There are "Yes"es in there, sure, but I feel so steam-rolled by the "No"s that it's hard to celebrate the positive!I bet you've experienced this before with your fears. I bet you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.Here are some similar examples:

• If you fear failing, I bet you put off even trying until you're so fed up with the spot you're in that you'd rather do anything else.
• If you fear judgment, you might procrastinate on taking that risk that might make you look stupid or amateur.
• If you fear change, you probably avoid many of the actions that you know need to get done in order to create that forward movement you want so badly.

I've come up with one simple solution that I've been practicing myself, and I've gotta say, I think I'm onto something here.Here's what you do:

Take 3 fear-facing actions daily.

No ifs, ands or buts....unless you're kicking fear's butt. Then butts are ok.I started doing this at the beginning of this week when I was coming up against such bad resistance within me that it actually began to turn physical; my body felt heavy and tired and my brain turned muddy and negative. I knew I had to rise above this, and quick.After all, it's not just about me.So I determined to take this fear-facing challenge.

The very first day I took this challenge, I conquered 12 tasks that I had been avoiding on my to-do list for at least a week.

All of these actions threatened rejection, but after I did the first 3, I realized that the action wasn't so scary! So I kept going.And here's the bonus: I'm getting more positive reactions than I originally expected! The anticipation of the rejection was what scared me away from taking action. I was building it up in my head and expecting to hear "No"s.Don't get me wrong; I'm still hearing quite a few, but turning it into a game like this has revved up my competitive spirit and made me feel like I'm conquering the tough stuff, which helps me move past the negative stuff faster.I feel like taking this challenge has started opening my life up again.It's just like working out or eating healthy: taking the actions necessary makes every subsequent action that much easier.I'm moving forward at a crazy-fast pace now that I've committed to face my fears 3 times per day, and I think you should join me.Come on! We'll be team mates! :)Just commit to one week of this practice. That's it. See where it takes you.So what do you say? Are you up for the challenge?

Chime in below in the comments with "I'm in!" and the 3 actions you plan to take TODAY!

They can be as little as wearing that shirt that turned out a little brighter in real life than it was online, or writing an email to someone who you haven't talked to in a long time.Show that fear who's boss. ;)Stay strong,Amy

It's a comin' and fast! Later this month, I'll be launching this year's crowdfunding campaign to do The 2014 Strong Inside Out Tour to major cities across The US!I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again, and making you sweat with an intention-driven, super-sweaty workout!We have a very exciting addition to the tour this year, too, that I can't wait to tell you about. It will help us create lasting change in class participants so that you're not only celebrating for one day, but you continue to create the empowered life you want!But first, we need to make sure that we can actually get to some of the cities that we're having a teensy bit of trouble with.If you're in the following cities and want to help us empower people through fitness, give me a shout through my contact form:

• NYC
• Denver
• Austin

The other cities are coming together nicely and I'm working with people to put them all together. I would love to work with you to make these big three happen, so please reach out if you can help out!

Click here if you can help, and fill out the contact form with your location and any studios, gyms or CrossFit boxes you have a relationship with that might be able to host us!

Thank you thank you thank you! This movement wouldn't be moving without you!-Amy