What's Your Biggest Fear?

Mine is dying with potential.

I’m sitting in one of my favorite cafes right now. Two iced lattes down. Locked in.

I’m turning 23 now. And honestly, that fear hasn’t gone away.

I don’t see it as a bad thing. If anything, it’s a good kind of fear. The kind that keeps you moving. I don’t want to wither away slowly. I want to wear off. I want to use myself fully.

I’ve always had big, sometimes vague, goals for myself. But what I’ve always known—deep down—is that I have that fire. And I’m not saying that to sound impressive. I just know how I get when I care about something.

When I’m in it, I’m in it. Competitive. Focused. I don’t care about distractions. I don’t want to waste time.

And I want to see more women like that. I’m sure there are plenty—but they’re not always visible. Not everyone’s posting that mindset online. That’s why campaigns like Nike’s hit me. They get it.

I fear that I’ll get distracted by noise. I’ll fall into patterns, comfort, or other people’s timelines when I know I can do more.

We live in a time when there are barely any real barriers. If I want to do something, I can figure it out, build it, launch it, or get it out there.

That kind of freedom is rare. And wasting it? That would be a shame.

When I was 16, I was doing things that nobody around me was doing. Now, I see 15-year-olds building startups, going viral, raising money, and creating massive impact. The bar keeps rising. And my own expectations have always been high.

But there’s a shift that happened when I made fitness a part of my life.

I started thinking differently. I became more consistent. More grounded. I stopped negotiating with myself as much. I started becoming the kind of person I had always wanted to be—not perfect, but aligned.

Now, I don’t know exactly what my life will look like when I’m 25, 30, or 35. But I know this: I want to be proud of what I built. Proud of the effort. Proud of this mindset. Even if I made mistakes along the way.

And that’s the whole point.

Being afraid is okay. Feeling emotional is okay. Even being stuck is okay for a little while.

What’s not okay is staying there.

You’ve got to keep moving. Through the hard phases. Through the wins that don’t feel big enough. Through the uncertainty.

You just have to keep going.

So here’s what I do when that fear starts creeping in:

I simplify everything.

I stop overthinking the big picture and just ask myself: What’s one thing I can control today?

Usually, it’s small:

– Get a workout in

– Finish one thing I’ve been avoiding

– Spend an hour on deep work

– Shut off distractions

– Say no to something that doesn’t feel aligned

That’s it. One rep to get back in the field.

And most of the time, that one small thing is enough to reset the momentum.

Because you don’t get out of a slump by thinking your way out.

You move your way out.

So if you’ve been stuck, scared, or spiraling—

Do one thing. Anything. And let that be the start.

– kanishka

One thought I’d leave you with.