Our bodies tell us when we need to eat, drink, use the bathroom, wear a coat, cool off, be careful or leery of a situation.
But, as I potty train my 2 year old son I'm struck by how early we choose to not listen to these amazing bodies of ours.
My son has FOMO (fear of missing out) which leads to accidents. He's already ignoring his body for presumably bigger and better things (or so he thinks).
We All Do It
Congratulations for not peeing your pants for the last decade but I bet you made a bad business decision, were mean to a friend or did something else that "didn't feel right" but you did it anyway. We all do this to some degree. FOMO never fully leaves us after all.
Fear of missing the big deal
Fear of rejection
Fear of being ridiculed
Put quite simply our fear of missing out is actually a fear of being left out or behind.
Here are a couple of my own examples.
I married at 22 because everyone else was getting married and isn't that what you do at 22? My fear of being alone for the rest of my life and not fitting in was to blame here.
I reprimanded an employee even when I felt she was doing nothing wrong because my boss told me to. My fear of missing a promotion or falling out of favor with my manager playing into my decision.
Enough
I decided about a year ago to stop with the fear and make decisions based on MY life and what felt right for me. As soon as I embraced this everything changed.
I quit my job
I stood up to a rude boss on behalf of my department
I started my own business
I decided to write a blog
If I listened to my fear I would be in a much different place right now and definitely not happy.
Wanna join me?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself the next time you're struck with FOMO but you also feel some internal struggle against it.
What is making me scared right now?
Do other's opinions matter more than my happiness in this scenario?
In 5 years if I choose the path less traveled where could I be?
In the same 5 years if I choose the safer option where will I be?
Close your eyes, take a deep breath and feel your heart. You are feeling from your heart. Make your choice now.
If you embrace your intuition and let it guide you, you may end up somewhere you never even imagined possible.
Fitting in is boring, here's the standing out and truly living!