How I Overcame My Fears On The Field

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

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What’s up guys!

Today I’m going to talk about how I overcame my fears on the field…

And how you can too.

It all started with a TED Talk…

The Ted Talk:

The 100 Days of Rejection Challenge.

The challenge gives you a list of 100 crazy 'quests'...

And the objective is to get rejected every day.

Examples:

• Ask a stranger for $100.

• Ask a stranger in the grocery store to buy your groceries.

• Ask for FREE coffee.

The list goes on, and gets crazier...

(You can see some of them here):

The speaker did this challenge to overcome his fear of rejection.

He found that as he exposed himself to rejection, he became less scared of it.

This is called exposure therapy.

I came across this when I was 18 yrs old.

I had just signed a professional contract with the Phillies...

And felt the expectations.

I was determined to prove my worth... But also terrified of rejection.

I was scared of rejection from:

• Teammates

• Coaches

• Front office

I wanted to fit in, and prove that I'm worthy of the contract I just signed.

The Problem:

My anxieties became so severe, it affected me on the baseball field.

I developed the throwing yips, and I was playing the worst I'd ever been.

I knew I had to take action.

Out of desperation, I try the 100 days of rejection challenge.

Here's how that went…

I started at the mall.

I had this grand plan where I would ask 5-10 strangers for $100...

But I crumble.

This was WAAAYY harder than I thought.

After a couple of attempts, I finally muster up the courage.

I walk in a store, ask a stranger to buy me a T-shirt…

And get rejected.

I felt dumb. Stupid. Humiliated.

But also a sense of accomplishment.

I did this every weekend for a month.

The Result:

Each encounter became easier, and I felt my brain desensitize to the fear.

But the question is…

Did it help me play better on the field?

Not until I started implementing Exposure Therapy on the field.

How?

Whatever I was scared of, I exposed myself to it.

I did the embarrassing thing, on Purpose.

I was terrified of making bad throws and looking bad.

So I made bad throws on purpose.

And as I did that - my brain desensitized itself from the fear of a bad throw.

It became something that wasn't a big deal.

My message to you today is simple:

Whatever you’re scared of, expose yourself to it.

Overtime, you'll become less scared.

I hope this helps.

That’s it for today, thanks for reading!