Lean Into Stress and Embrace Fear

One of the enduring goals of Beyond Fitness is that our gym will give you a life worth living. We coach our clients to higher levels of fitness with the hope that they go and actually do stuff with their fitness. We love having you do 5ks and marathons; Spartans and Strongman; the “bucket list” stuff, like skydiving and Gran Fondos or hiking the West Coast Trail. We can get you ready for any of it. That doesn’t mean those things won’t be scary. If you’re doing a century bike ride this weekend, the nerves will probably start kicking in right about…..wait…….now.

Here’s how I’ve learned to lean into the scary stuff, embrace stress and live a better life:

First, understand that your body doesn’t know the difference between fear and excitement (think about the pre-roller coaster ride jitters). They feel the same. When you start getting anxious before an event, ask yourself: “Am I actually scared, or am I just excited?”

As adults, we’re not excited often. Our body’s default response to increased blood pressure, elevated heart rate and surging adrenalin is fear. Then we fall into a downward spiral and get scared when we should really be excited.

Here’s something a coach once told me that I’ve never forgotten: on the start line of the Nationals Road race in Hamilton Ontario the year that the World Championships were being raced on the same course. I was surrounded by many of the fastest bike racers in the world, all come to test out the course before the biggest race of their year. He crouched beside me as the clock was ticking down and said, “It’s like opening your Christmas presents!” Now I repeat that to myself before the start of every big workout or event.

Second, know that anticipation is worse than the event.

Our fear of what might happen is always way out of scope from what actually happens. Our lizard brain takes over and our minds go to the worst-case scenario, and we run at max heart rate for three days before the event. When the event actually starts, we’re exhausted from replaying the possibilities over and over! We’ve already done the whole event—with every catastrophe included!—78 times!

Once you hold the belief that there's no such thing as failure, it's just feedback. It's time to sit down with a pen and paper, write down a list of your fears, and then face them one-by-one. Again, once your mind expands, it cannot go back. You will also desensitize yourself to the concept and reality of fear.

Embrace the physiological changes and enjoy them – welcome them with open arms. Tell yourself that these are the feelings of a winner, these are the feelings that allow you to focus and maximize your potential by turning the many hours of training into results. These are the feelings that you only get when it matters.

Third, put the event in perspective: Will you actually remember this in a year?

If not, it’s not worth stressing about.

If you will remember the event a year from now, it’s really worth doing.

Life is a series of moments. These standout moments—not the daily rhythm of eating breakfast, showering and going to work—become your story. Any story without these standout moments is boring. Every time you break through your perceived limits, every time you grind your gears to dust on a steep climb, every time you take a risk—you're creating a great story that you can learn and grow from. In the end, these are the things that matter most. Lean into them.