During 2015 and 2016 I travelled solo on a motorbike from Australia to the Netherlands. This life-changing, 25-country journey was a crash course in many things. One of them: “How to manage fear”.
The blog post below outlines my three-step technique to managing fear.
This was originally published on my travel blog, chickonthechookchaser.com, in 2015 while travelling through Indonesia.
For those of you who think that a girl travelling solo on a motorbike is like a fearless pirate, blindly attacking every obstacle with a run-up, sword high in the air, yelling “Arrrgggg”… I’m sorry to crush that idea.
In actual fact, fear is part of my daily existence. There is a little bit of fear in every action, every step, and every kilometre. From the fear of getting sick by eating street food, to running out of water, to the bike breaking down, to being scared to have an accident. Other times I’m scared I won’t find a place to sleep or decent food. Or I fear having to go to the toilet and there is no toilet paper… Actually in most places in Indonesia there is no toilet paper, just water, your left hand, and soap. There is no point in fearing this, I’m better off accepting reality here!
Anyways, back to the point, the question really is what am I actually scared of? It seems to me that what I’m actually scared of isn’t something outside me. Not the food, not the sleeping arrangement, the traffic, the no-toilet paper, the rain, the cold, the heat, the flat tyres, the breakdowns… No, in reality, what I’m actually scared of is not being able to cope with these situations.
Let me say that again, I don’t fear running out of water, I fear not being able to cope with running out of water. So basically I’m scared of my own possible inabilities.
Now this gives me something I can work with. I mean, there is no way I can change the traffic or the heat, but what I can change is my thinking and my behaviour towards it. Are you still with me?
Here is my three-step technique for how to manage fear
First, I’m changing my thinking
from: “OMG what am I going to do if….!!!! I can’t deal with…!!”
to: “Whatever comes my way, I believe I can deal with it”.
Second, I check in with myself with regards to the reality and acuteness of my fears. Take running out of drinking water for example. When travelling through remote areas I can make sure to carry a multiple days worth of water. Other times, in densely populated (read: there is someone trying to sell something every 50 meters) areas I know I can always buy more water.
Third, it also helps to assess the worst case scenario and some possible solutions: “If I run out of water somewhere far from any store I can ask locals for drinking water or find a creek and use my water filter or put water in a see-through bottle and kill the bugs using sunlight or create some sort of Bear Grylls contraption with plastic bags around leaves or….”
Taking these three steps in approaching fears gives me peace of mind and the freedom to really enjoy my travels.
On top of that, it builds my confidence muscle. It provides me with the belief that I can save myself in every possible scenario. This in turn creates a more clear headed approach when I do find myself in precarious situations. And, with every issue that I face and solve my confidence grows.
So, instead of choosing between fear or fearless, I choose to fear less. To rationalise my thoughts and change them if necessary, and to believe in my own competence and problem solving skills. This choice to fear less has gotten me to places I otherwise wouldn’t have been and it is making this trip more amazing each and every day.
If your fears are holding you back from living your dreams, just give this three-step technique a go!
You never know where it could lead…