"Rising to the Challenge"

By: Star Trekker

(Originally published in the October 1998 issue of Perspectives)

Do you remember your first time? Were you scared? Excited? Nervous?

I have the guts to say that while it looked easy, actually doing it was a totally different story. So, what was ‘it’?

Well, ‘it’ is depends on you want it to be. But, just to offer some examples, it could be a first date (and everything that entails, from getting to first base to a home run), or, a first time behind the wheel, or the first job, or the first time doing a speech in front of a crowd. But suffice it to say, you fill in the blank.

So, think about something you had to do for the first time. Something that, at first, sounded like a hard thing to do. Go ahead, do it. I’ll wait. Just to play along, I’ll recall the first time I had to do a public presentation (i.e. talk in front of a bunch of people). (As if I’d tell you my first date, but if that’s what you chose, then go with it).

If you’re like me, you were nervous your first time. The palms of your hands were sweaty, and the mind, left to its own devices, would remain a blank. For me, the suggestion of thinking the audience was in their underwear just didn’t work (but if you got to the point where you were stripped to your bare underwear on your first date, then this might not be applicable to you).

After making the decision to go ahead and do it, my mind was absorbed with what I had to do. If it’s something you don’t particularly like doing, you find ways and excuses so that you don’t have to do it. And even if it’s something you are yearning to do, you somehow try to convince yourself to ‘wait, and do it later.’ Succinctly put, you had fear.

But at some critical point, there is no point of return, and you either do it with a bang, or wither away defeated by the fear, letting the opportunity slip through your fingers. If you let the chance go and didn’t do it, well, all I can tell you is, the opportunity might not come again. By letting F.E.A.R. win, you let "False Evidence Appear Real."

But if you went through with it, whatever it was you did for the first time, you let yourself rise to the challenge of gaining some experience with real life. And when you do that, you gain so much about yourself. You gain self-confidence, courage, and stamina, which will only help you the next time you face a ‘first time.’ By taking advantage of your first time, you open yourself to a higher level of experience-—the chance to taste the essence of what it is you are doing, because the fear you had is gone or diminished. Then you’re a real Trekker and dare to do what you’ve never done before.

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