Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: 'Is this the condition that I feared? - Seneca
The stoics pushed themselves to do uncomfortable things in order to erase their fear over them and gain back control.
1. Old Clothing
Buy clothes from a charity and wear them outside. Notice how much others opinions matter. Very few may scoff, but the majority won't care.
When you realise how little people care you can save money by cutting back on designer brands
When I was out in China whenever we went on a Bros Trip we would all buy something stupid and wear it for the rest of the trip. Fluffy headbands, tiaras, fairy wands, swords ect. It made the trip more fun and we soon realised no matter how ubsurd we forced ourselves to be, most people didn't care.
2. Sleep on the floor
This way you'll never feel bad about asking for help and crashing at a friend's place when things get tough.
Crash on the ground and you'll reduce your fear of being homeless. I slept at a bus stop because I refused to pay the extortion the taxi wanted. It wasn't that bad.
3. Stand up comedy
You'll reduce your fear of people looking at you. You'll also gain confidence in yourself and feel more power behind what you say.
I performed for the first time last month I loved it. When I stepped onto the stage and started my nerves disappeared. I was in the moment. Others reaction was outside my control, sure I wanted laughs but all I could do was do my set and hope for the best. Luckily they enjoyed it.
4. Cold Showers
After your normal shower turn it to frozen and jump in. This allows you to show courage at the start of the day.
There's a lot of other health benefits to cold showers, but this is the main reason I do it. Doing something difficult in the morning make's the rest of the day 10 X easier.
5. Kareoke
Singing well isn't easy, but here's some tips I've picked up to make getting up on stage easier.
Hum - hum before you start singing. This is your base level of singing. If you can't hum super high pitched don't attempt to sing high pitched. Sounds crazy, but give it a go and you'll be amazed by how quickly you improve.
The IKEA effect- the IKEA effect is a psychological bias that states that the more involved someone is with creation the more they enjoy the product. As a result if you pick a song others can sing or dance to they'll enjoy your performance more and rate you as a better performer.
Peak end rule - another psychological bias. This one states that we remember the peak's of events, and the end. For example if we are getting dental surgery we'll remember the most painful point and how we felt at the end. If the dentist pretends to work for a few more minutes our pain will reduce and we'll remember the experience as not being that bad. That's a long winded way of saying we remember the absolute worst singers and (if sober,) the last. Perform alright in the middle and they'll forget how bad you were.
6. Unpopular Opinion
State an unpopular opinion you have. This will get attacked, but if you stand your ground you get a new sense of freedom. The freedom to speak your mind.
Be willing to listen to reason. It may be unpopular, because it's wrong. Start small and continue to speak your mind. If you're even remotely important the world deserves to hear your true thoughts, not just the same retric everyone else has been programmed to repeat.
7. Say No
I was a natural yes man. Maybe I still am. Saying no has had a huge impact on my life my time is more valuable. I can relax. I'm less stressed. If you're not really wanting to do something with all your body, it's a no.
As Derek Sivers said - if it's no hell yeah! It's no.
8. Read
Scrolling through tiktok all day is easy. Getting a book and learning something new, not so much. We all know which one yeilds better results. What do you want to learn? Search Google for the top books on that topic and buy one. Read it and take notes.b share what you've learnt. Show the world your growth.
9. Help Others
Go out of your way to help someone else. Notice how it makes you feel. What else did you take away from the experience?
10. Write A Book
Brainstorm what you could write about and what would be a worthwhile read. Then write it. Actually, write a crap copy. A really crap copy. Then start fleshing it out. Make it bad. Then flesh it out again until you have an okay book. Repeat this process until you have something great. Then Search 'amazon kdp' and publish it.
It's a really tough process, but you'll grow a lot in the process. You'll learn that you are capable of doing far more than you first believed.
11. The Rocco Effect Books
Not only do I write amazing Blogs like this, design beautiful stoic clothing like adverised below I also write books. If you like these blogs you'll love them.
Set 1 - https://amzn.eu/d/gkNRypS
Set 2 - https://amzn.eu/d/6we2RcN
? - https://amzn.eu/d/i4gvyXI
