41. Do It Anxious
A note to my anxious self
I get anxious a lot. For a long time, I thought I had to fix that before I could do anything important. I kept waiting to feel confident before I started. But I was looking at it all wrong. That anxiety isn’t really a problem. It’s more like a signal.
You don’t get nervous about things you don’t care about. That feeling in your stomach just tells you that you’re working on something that matters to you. It means you’re thinking about the future and you want it to turn out well.
People talk a lot about chasing happiness and avoiding stress. But a life with zero stress is a life where you’re not really growing. If it were all about being comfortable, we’d just stay home. Yet people still choose to do hard things, like start a company, run marathons or raise a family.
Those things are a struggle, but it’s a struggle you choose. And that makes all the difference. It’s a privilege to get to choose your own hard things. To pick the challenges that give you a reason to get up in the morning. The goal isn’t to have an easy life, but to have a life with meaning.
When you think of it that way, you don’t have to wait for the fear to disappear. You just do it anxious. You make the call, write the code, or publish the post, even with your heart pounding. That feeling is just proof that you’re doing something that matters.
I see this with travel all the time. I love seeing new places, experiencing nature, and soaking in other cultures. But before every long trip, I get anxious. For years, I thought I had to fix this feeling before I could travel freely. Now, I’ve changed my mind. I look at the anxiety, acknowledge it’s there, and get on the plane anyway. The experience on the other side is always worth it.
And when you do brave things, you’re going to mess up sometimes. That’s just how it works. But failure isn’t the opposite of success. It’s just part of the learning process. Every time you fall, you learn something.
So next time you feel that anxiety, don’t let it stop you. It’s probably a sign that you’re about to do something important. The thing that makes you nervous is usually the thing worth doing. Do it anyway. Do it anxious.