Am I the only one incapable of taking her own advice?

“Do one thing every day that scares you” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Last night, after seeing a movie, I was sitting in a Starbucks chatting with a friend about how confusing dating as an adult is. The woman next to us, after overhearing quite a bit, shared her own confusion: A coworker she had a crush on often asked her what she was doing on the weekends. She, not realizing it was probably an invitation for a date, told him what she was doing (sounding busy, and thus, unavailable). This has apparently gone on for well over a year, until the coworker noticed a new coworker asking this lady the same question, with the same response. The old coworker (the one she has a crush on) advised her to be more available, because when guys ask you what you’re doing over the weekend, they don’t ACTUALLY want to know.

So, when she was asking for advice, the answer was obvious. She needs to go for it! The coworker is obviously interested, otherwise he wouldn’t be doing things that he himself says are signs of a guy being interested. She literally has nothing to lose by casually asking him to a movie or something, right? But she’s too terrified to do it! And as I was trying to convince her how absolutely harmless it is, I realized, if I were in the same situation, I’d be reacting in the exact same way.

So the question is why? Why can’t I take my own advice? My whole plan for the upcoming year is to be fearless, but this situation shouldn’t even be fear inducing, its kind of a sure thing. But I know I wouldn’t take my own advice. Which makes me think, how many other things am I missing out on by being scared? And what’s worse, how many things am I missing out on by being scared of NOTHING?

One of my goals for the year was to do something that scares me, and I’m realizing its value more than ever today. I think I need to do several things that scare me, and I’m kind of excited to do so. Right now, the only legitimate fears are death and personal injury, humiliation is not an option! Will I take my own advice? I don’t know, it’s going to be scary. But I really do have nothing to lose, and its time to start doing the things that scare me!