“believe in yourself and conquer”

This post is all about conquering fear.  I want to start this with a story that took place just a few days ago on a friend’s old farm when I had to face my fear or be squashed by a cow!  

Running a farm is incredibly hard work and there’s always a long list of jobs to do, so sometimes it’s great to call in your friends to give you a hand.  We were all given jobs to do and I was put to work emptying, cleaning out and refilling a water trough.  However, this water trough was located up against an old building right in the middle of the cows yard!

I’m not exactly scared of cows but I wouldn’t say that I’m best friends with them either.  They can be really intimidating, they’re pretty big and really inquisitive and they don’t know their own strength!!!

I guess you could say that I’m just not that confident around them.

Anyway, I got stuck in and was scrubbing away when suddenly I felt my shoulder being nudged. I turned around to see an absolutely massive cow with one horn sniffing and licking my arm.  Then suddenly a few more cows decided to come over and check me out and within seconds I was backed up against the wall surrounded by three cows.   To be honest I was definitely a bit scared and I had absolutely no clue how to get out.

So at first I just stayed there and hoped they would realise that I wasn’t that interesting and wander off.  But that wasn’t working. Our friend, who is the farmer, has so much confidence around the cows and shows them who’s boss.   But could I muster up the confidence to face up to this fear inside my head?  My friend had raised most of these cows from birth, she was confident in them and in me, she wouldn’t have put me in danger.

It’s important to remember when you are facing a fear that you have a choice.

Was I going to let fear cloud my thoughts and judgment and start letting myself see negatively or was I going to believe in myself.

So what did I do and what choice did I make? Well, I decided to use this opportunity to make myself more confident around them.  I tried to show the cows whose boss, I spread out my arms and started walking confidently towards them whilst shooing them away.  And guess what?  It worked!  

Minutes later they were back, but this time I wasn’t afraid.

And that’s the end of the story, but if you’re in a situation where you’ve got to face your fear, remember: believe in yourself and conquer.