Episode 1: The Fear of Fear

The speaker is introducing themselves and expressing excitement about starting their podcast. They discuss the fear of fear and how to overcome it. They emphasize the importance of taking risks and facing challenges in order to reach one's potential. They use the analogy of standing on a cliff and taking a leap. They acknowledge that failure is a part of life and that it is important to learn from it. They find inspiration in success stories and encourage others to pursue their goals. Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you all are having a good day. I am having a pretty good day. I mean, I'm having a really good day. This is the first episode of my podcast, so I'm very excited and happy to be here with you all. Truly, finally here. We finally made it to this moment. I know I talked about doing this for about three to four months and I let a lot of people know. And it's because it was something that I really wanted to do and something so dear and near to my heart that I was just excited to share this with you all. And I'm finally so happy to be here and ready to do this thing underway. Let me introduce myself a little bit. My name is Mark Wesway and I am 25 from San Antonio. I am a child of some amazing parents. I have an older sister and a younger brother. I love lo-fi music and I like to talk to people about various different things. If you know me personally, you know that I have been through a lot of things in my life that has affected me in many ways, positively and negatively. But I have to realize that I am a strong person and that I can get through anything that I put my mind through. And actually that's what this first episode is going to be about. The fear of fear and how to get over whatever fear that you might be feeling or harboring within yourself. Because being scared is not fun. It's not. But it's a survival mechanism of ours and it's how we learn how to adapt and get over things that seem like life or death situations. But in reality, we're all going to be okay and we're all going to make it. So with that being said, let's start off this first episode, fear of fear. Okay. Fear is just an opportunity to get stronger in yourself, stronger in your resiliency and stronger in the person that you know that you are meant to be. It's a learning opportunity for you to slowly get to the point where you realize you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. It's going to take some time and patience and practice and you're going to get bruised. You're going to fall down. But if you knew one day you could become an even better person than you are today and you could fly, you would jump and you would leap and you would take necessary steps to get to where you want to be in life. You'll look fear in the eye and you'll just do whatever it is you're afraid of because you know that you have greater potential in this life, a greater purpose in this life. I'm very nervous to be doing this right now. This is not easy for me at all. As a matter of fact, for like the first hour before even starting this recording, I kept recording things and I realized, no, this is not it. I'm just going to have to do this and work with one product and just put it out there. Because personally, I am a perfectionist, so everything has to be perfect. But that's just not going to be possible. I am scared of, I guess, people's perception of whatever I might create or whatever I might put out. So of course I want to put the best quality stuff out there, but I can't be scared to do that because I'll get better over time. But just the fact that I'm doing this right now and in this moment, starting this thing, is really a proud moment for myself and I'm very proud of myself. So back to the cliff analogy that I just kind of brought up. If you could fly, you would do that. You would just jump off the cliff. If you knew you could fly and if you knew you would be okay, you would have flew, you would have soared. You have to silence the what ifs that ruminate throughout your head, the doubts, anything negative to get where you want to be in life. Because the truth is, is everyone is scared. Everyone. And people are just waiting for other people to make that jump, make that leap. They're waiting to be inspired. People are waiting and looking for you to fly. You just got to take that leap and do it. I think you'd find yourself asking a very important question if you were standing at the edge of a cliff. Again, this is all metaphorical, not literal. But if you're standing at the edge of a cliff, you would find yourself asking a very important question. How would the people that are about to watch me, the onlookers, people in your life, benefit differently because of who you decided to be? How would they be inspired? How would the world be a better place to live because fear didn't keep you standing on the edge? You took a risk. You went out there. You did the thing. And you can be afraid. As a matter of fact, you will be afraid. But the fact that you take that leap will inspire someone, even if it's one person, and it can change their life for the better. Because I'm going to be real. Not everybody is going to be impressed with what you got going on. But it will definitely impress someone. It will speak to someone on a deeper level that you cannot see yourself. Someone will need to have seen you in that moment, being successful, taking that leap, flying. And because they're showing up to watch you soar, you just got to do it. You got to be there. Be there. Be there for them. To reach your potential, because every win for you gives them a slither of a wing. No one has wings. No one has wings but you, right? You have wings. You develop those wings through life whenever you take risks here and there. You develop those wings slowly. And hopefully you have enough courage and very strong wings to just do it. Because people are watching you, and they're watching you and waiting to see what you do. Watching you, steadily planting seeds of confidence within them so that they may develop and strengthen their own wings. I like analogies. I love analogies because a lot of the times it's hard for me to get my point across by just speaking on real life things, but with analogies it's easier for me. Anyway, I'm using this whole wing metaphor, cliff metaphor. Your wings are going to be your confidence. Everything that you've been through that has helped you develop the confidence to get out there and do whatever it is that you said that you're going to do, whatever it is that you want to do in life. So you stand in your own conviction so that one day they can face their own cliff. One day they can face their own cliff. I like to think there's four categories to this game of life we're all playing. And we're always in one of these categories for different life situations. Okay, so there's the first category. And again, I'm going back to analogies. I love analogies. The first category, meandering on the cliff. You're just kind of walking around the cliff, maybe dancing along the cliff edge, not really doing what you want to do in life. Kind of just going with the flow. Just stagnant. And then we have the second category. That's okay. You're standing on the edge and you're just kind of just on the edge. And you're looking down the cliff, right? That's people who see the potential that they have and they're just not doing anything about it. They're wasting time. They're not moving. Then you have the people that are going to jump off the cliff and soar and take it to the skies. Okay, and then you have the people that fall down to the ground and bruise themselves. Those are the four categories of life, right? And maybe you can find yourself in one of these categories right now. You will find yourself in one of these categories at all times, right? No matter what it is you're doing in life, no matter what it is you're looking to do, you're in one of these categories. Because like I said, fear is a survival mechanism. So what we do is we internalize that within pretty much every decision that we make in life. And I think that that's beautiful, but also very, very mind-numbing. There's one category I'd like to go back to, and the one that's the most interesting by far, okay, and that's that fall. That is that fall when you bruise yourself and you are hurt when you bruise yourself and you are hurt and you just feel terrible. Because this is the category, right, that your onlookers are the most interested to see. This is something your onlookers are most interested to see. They want to see how you pick yourself up off the ground when you fall, the reaction to the action of the leap. See, because you may have fallen, but you will find you're still alive and you can get back up. If you take that leap, plummet and hit rock bottom, people are watching to see how you pick up the pieces. That's what they're looking for. Because within different talks and whatnot, we get told that we're going to fail. You're not going to be perfect. You're going to fail. Things aren't going to go the way you expect them to be. Life just isn't perfect. Life isn't perfect for anyone. Everyone has struggles. Everyone has hardships at some point. So people are just watching to see how you deal with your own personal hardships, how you respond to things. I don't know about you guys, but that's what inspires me the most, success stories. Because sure, success is fantastic, but it's what did you have to go through to get to where you are now? I really love that because that's what truly inspires me. That's what inspired me to start this thing, seeing people be successful and doing what they want to do, moving forward in life, going where they want to go. That is so inspirational to me. I have utmost respect for people who take life by the reins and try to control their own destiny the way that they see fit. That is so inspirational to me. Now back to the whole analogy. Success is fantastic. It looks fantastic. I can imagine flying would be pretty epic, but you're not going to know how to fly right off the bat. You got to go through some things. You have to start somewhere. You got to start jumping a little bit. You got to start on solid ground before you just throw yourself off the cliff. Because the truth is, if you want to make a change in your life, you have to fall. You have to be defeated because defeat teaches us so much. It teaches us how to be better, how to be more responsible, how to go through life in a better way. I'm a 25-year-old man, and I am only now starting to develop. They say when you turn 25, that's when your brain starts to fully develop completely and you start to make more rational decisions. That doesn't exist whenever you're younger. It didn't exist for me when I was younger. I was not making the best decisions for myself, but now I'm starting to find myself making better decisions that will ultimately be better for me in the long run. What am I doing with these better decisions? I am trying to inspire people. That's what I'm doing. Like I said, if you want a major change in your life, you will have to fall. You will have to be defeated. That's just the way life is. Don't expect to take an elevator back up to the cliff edge. It's not that easy. Nope. You got to take the stairs. Walk up the stairs, have small wins, step-by-step until you try taking that big leap again, whatever that big leap is. That big leap doesn't even have to be a huge thing. Like I said, everyone is different, but I believe everyone has major potential and should see the potential within themselves if they just face their fears. People love to be inspired. They want to be inspired because resiliency stories make for some of the best stories. Some of your best motivation came wrapped up in failure. So take the opportunity to fuel, really fuel your fear. I know that, and anyone else who knows me knows that I love anime. And I love it because there's a deeper, there's always deeper messages behind the stories that are told here. People that are beat down, characters that are beat down to the point where a lot of the times they're unrecognizable. Midoriya, I'm looking at you, you know? And he just, he doesn't stop. He just, he keeps going. And he's very inspirational to many, many fans. One of my favorite anime characters by far. You heard that from me first episode. Izuku Midoriya is one of my favorite anime characters. I actually have a picture of him on my wall here because he is the embodiment of resiliency and bravery. But if you can't relate to anime, right, let me see if I can kind of turn it around a little bit. Right, so you don't go to movies to watch superheroes like Batman and Superman fail, get beat down, and sulk in losing. They don't do that. No, no, no. They don't. Because honestly, we'd be a bit disappointed in them. We resonate on a deep human level when we watch people rise from the ashes. And this is because for a fraction of a second, we can see ourselves in these characters. And that gives us a bit of courage and hope to face our own story, our own cliff, to do the thing that's got us paralyzed with fear. So you just got to do it. I don't know how other, you know, I could say, you know, just do it. But sometimes that's all you got to hear. Just do it. Right. Now, with all this inspiration and watching someone jump off the cliff and start to soar, right, like I said, you start to develop your own wings. Your own wings start to get stronger. You start to have courage to do it yourself. Like, huh, hey, if he can do it and he's still fine and dandy and alive and well, then surely I can. Right. You can be inspired all day and imagine yourself in a better place, a better situation in life, but you won't actually be there until you act on it. Right. That fear will disappear into nothing because it was always nothing. When you act on it, you'll realize that it was nothing to begin with. Like, what were you so afraid of? You have to do things you've never done if you want to change your life, get comfortable with being inconvenienced a little bit. I think that's a major problem in society. We have all of these, everything is just handed to us so easily. And it's almost sad. It's like we're all turning into robots here. I don't know what the whole deal is, but our attention spans have drastically shrunken over the years. Personally, I can't focus for more than 10, 15 minutes at a time without feeling like my mind needs to go to something else because social media, right, and all the different distractions life has to offer. There's just a lot going on. Sometimes you just have to take moments to just sit back, reflect, and just maybe just read a book. Calm your brain, calm your mind. One of my friends always tells me, chill, chill away when he sees me stressed or on edge. Chill away. It's going to be all right. It's going to be good. Just chill out. You got it. You have to be comfortable with being inconvenienced because you are the author of your story, so you better be sure to write a good one, right? Be sure to have a good story to tell when little kids, people are looking up to you when you're old and geriatric, you know, sitting in a retirement home or whatever. You want to have a good story to tell. You want to let people know that you did it, you did the thing, and that they can do the thing too. I don't want to be complacent in life, and I know what I want in life, so I'm going to get it by inconveniencing myself a little bit. This is a major inconvenience to me. I've never done anything like this before, so this is a part of me having to do something that I've This is a part of me having to do something that I've never done before. All right, it's all wrapped up in kind of what I talked about, having the courage to just do it, and I'm being a little specific here, but I've been scared so many times in my life, but I'm still alive. I'm still here, and actually, I'm in a very, not the best mental position right now. I don't think I'll ever be in the best mental position because I think that there's always a learning curve that everyone needs to go over, but I'm getting mentally stronger because I'm allowing myself to get a little uncomfortable and not just have courage to do things. That's pretty much what this whole episode was about because courage is one of the only things that connects us all on a subconscious level. Courage is one of the only things that connects us all on a subconscious level. Courage is one of the only things that connects us all on a subconscious level. Courage is one of the only things that connects us all on a subconscious level. Seeing other people take the step, do the thing, because other than that, everyone is unique. We all come wrapped in our own special packages with our own life story. The only thing you got to do is live, get a little uncomfortable from time to time, embrace your truth, the good and the bad, make mistakes, fall, fail, but get back up because when you do, you'll be inspiring so many people. People will be like, dang, that guy, he kept it going. Things weren't looking good, but I mean, look at him now. I'm very proud of myself because I've been through so much in life I used to be a hermit in grade school. Doing something like this would have been out of the question. I wouldn't have been able to imagine me doing something like this. I would think, nah, that's for someone else. That's for someone else to do. It's someone else's job to inspire me. It's someone else's job to make me feel like something, right? Someone else's job. Because I'm looking at them, I'm looking at them winning, and I would just look back and just go, oh, that's not for me. That's not quite for me because, I mean, why would it be? No, and I change my line of thinking. I just have to change my mind. I just have to change my mind. No, and I change my line of thinking. I just have to change my line of thinking and say, that is for me, right? Speak it into existence. I'm a very big believer in affirmations, positive affirmations and such. Speak it into existence. Speak life into it. You can do it. I promise you, you can do it and you will be okay. You'll be okay. Because living in this way will make for a great story to tell in the future. I want to be an interesting old person. I don't want to be, I don't want to be an old person who has nothing to say about his life and, oh, I had this regret, that regret. I'm going to have regrets, but I don't want to have major regrets where I'm like, oh, I really should have done this. This was really heavy on my mind, heavy on my heart, right? Why couldn't I be financially as successful as I know I could be? Why couldn't I go for that job? Why couldn't I go for that hobby? Why couldn't I wear that piece of clothing that day years ago? Because we're all afraid of judgment. But if we're all afraid of judgment, then so people, there's nothing to be afraid of because people are going to judge you anyway, regardless. As long as you're judging yourself in a good light, go ahead and do it.