30 Day ‘Scare The Crap Out Of Myself’ Challenge – Day 1
Yesterday was my last day at my part time job. The job gave me both a structure to my week and a guaranteed income, both of which I have valued dearly. The company was great, the team was great and I learned a lot. Eventually, I realised that I was starting to use it as an excuse to not take action towards the life I want to live. So, thank you so much to my team at my past job and those at You Can for helping me get to the point I am at now. Jumping off the cliff into the unknown, leaping into the oh so scary world of believing in my skills, knowledge, and offer enough to generate my own income while doing things I love.
In order to celebrate this scary step, I have decided to embark on a 30 day scare the crap out of myself challenge.
For the next 30 days I will post one video which will describe doing something that both scares and excites me, one learning point, and a take away. Join me through my ‘Hell yeah!’ moments and my ‘Oh Sh*t’ moments for the next 30 days and please do cheer me on! *Warning, the raw and real Mel does tend to say a few swear words here and there…and sometimes makes up words all together!
Why on earth would you do this, Mel?
For Me: To bring some structure back in my life. To prove to myself that I can follow through. To document my journey at this scary time. To feel alive.
For You: Perhaps you are on a similar journey, thinking of making a change or needing to give yourself a kick in the bum to get going. I hope that following my journey will help you feel that you are not alone and inspire you to go out and do things that scare you too. Because in the end, it is by finding and doing something that makes you come alive that we truly start to make a dent in the world. Want to scare the crap out of yourself on film? Start your own challenge and let us know that you do! Share it on twitter with #stcoom (short for scarethecrapoutofmyself!)
Finally, Danger Lou, thank you so much for the inspiration. This is my journey towards Danger Me.
Love,
Mel
Mel Findlater
On feeling and being lost… what are you trying to find?
Hi there! I’m back! Back from my whirlwind trip to Fargo, North Dakota, to meet with and learn from a merry band of Misfits all keen to make a dent in the Universe. “Warning: This is not a conference for normal people!”
In my first post making sense of what I’ve just experienced, I’ve been inspired by this post by fellow Misfit and speaker at the conference, Jason Sadler*. He writes about feeling lost after the conference, starting on a journey to find his passion. It’s a journey I started back in 2010 when I was put at risk of redundancy in a job I’d grown bored of. Five of us, all at risk of redundancy or looking for change, started meeting once a month, bringing and sharing food and asking big questions, like:
- “What am I really good at?”
- “What do I really love to do?”
- “What do I really hate to do?”
- “What am I going to do next?”
Cut to three years later, and back in March this year, our very own Mel made a presentation to the You Can Check It Out team. She was talking about her experience so far being a Director of this very organisation that we founded back in 2011, as a result of our early gatherings. She said,
“Sometimes in life, I feel a little lost. The world stops making sense. I am overwhelmed with emotions – frustration, drive, confusion, passion, anger, love, fear, self doubt, excitement – all at the same time! It’s like a big explosion in my head! Every way I turn there seems to be a big brick wall blocking my way. Everyone I talk to looks at me with pitying eyes. “This is just the way it is Mel, get used to it” but I don’t believe it, there must be another way. So I keep looking, searching, wandering, I’m scared and alone.”
