Kat Thorne: back to the Positive Habits podcast. So today's solo episode is about pushing through fear and doubt and I've talked about this quite a lot on the podcast in different episodes with different guests but I feel like right now in 2026, this episode's going live in May, we need to just pause for 10 minutes and really think about where we are in our lives and how fear and doubt and anxiety might be stopping you from living the life that you are supposed to be living. Living the life that excites you that when you wake up, all you want to do is smile and enjoy the life that you are building. Now, if we take it back a second, I feel like many people, and this was definitely my own personal experience, were raised thinking that there was a certain way to do life. And for me growing up, that was be the first person in my family to go to university against all the odds. We couldn't afford it, but make it happen. Learn how to drive as soon as you can. Pass all your exams with flying colors. Get a really good job once you've graduated. Meet the man of your dreams. Get married. Have children. Live happily ever after. And I'm about to turn 44 and that definitely has not been my experience of life. And I keep thinking about a guest I had on the podcast, Stefanir, who said that she'd had a business, I think it was for seven years. And she decided in the end that it wasn't for her anymore. It'd been successful, it had made money, it helped a lot of people, but she just decided that that's what didn't, wasn't what she wanted to do anymore. So she stopped the business. And I think many people would have seen that as, as failure. We would have had a lot of doubts around that. And I think In order to kind of look at our own fear and doubt and what's holding us back, it's really important we look at the limiting beliefs we have, where we've got those from. So if you're ending a relationship or changing jobs or you want to push yourself maybe physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, whatever it is that you are afraid of doing. I think my brain always used to say, what's the worst case scenario? Because our brains like to do this. And then I used to look at all the different possible scenarios. But actually, I think when you start to see life as like a series of chapters, a series of versions of you, and Jay Alderton talks about this on his podcast, he's been married for a long time to his wife since they were young. And he said she's married like four or five different men. And what he means by that is he's been different people throughout their relationship. He's had different careers, different stages of life. And I think it's really important to recognize that you get one chance, you get one shot at this life. You get one opportunity to build a life you love. And yet so many of the people that I meet every day in the work I do are just existing. They're not actually living. And when I see the women who plunge on a Sunday morning and I see how much fear they've pushed through, how much determination they've got, how much courage they have, how even though they might have woken up with anxiety and fear and doubt that morning, they've still managed to push through it and come down to the beach and maybe for the first time not knowing anyone, not knowing what it's going to be like, not knowing how it's going to make them feel. And that for me is exciting. And I think when you start to accept life is just this unbelievably messy, beautiful roller coaster where one minute things feel incredible and the next minute it feels like you've had the rug ripped from under you and you have to find your identity all over again. I just think I don't want look back on my life and wish that I had more courage, that I hadn't made decisions because of fear. And I have so much fear all the time. I had fear starting this podcast. I had fear starting the morning game changer. I had fear about ending a really long relationship, fear about letting somebody new into my world. And The thing with fear is that it feels like it's so real. But I think what's really exciting about fear is you can acknowledge that you are afraid of things. You can acknowledge you're afraid of failing. You can acknowledge you're afraid of never finding somebody else or not having the same income or whatever it is that you're fearing. But do you know one of the best things someone ever said to me? It was Ian. the Global Run Ambassador, he's also been on the podcast. He said, imagine the best that could happen. So if we take some of the women who are watching our Women Who Plunge sea-dipping group on a Sunday, so maybe they're watching us on Instagram or Facebook, and every week we post these smiley photos of everyone. Imagine that they come to the beach, they make new friends, they... grow as a person, they get more confidence, they have more positive energy, maybe they start making other important life decisions that they've been putting off because they are around a group of women who are doing difficult things and building lives they love. What if that was the best that could happen? And honestly, I can't stop smiling when I think about that, that concept of what's the best that could happen. Because when you start to think rather than what's the worst, what's the best, you start smiling, you start getting excited, you start imagining the best that could happen. So, and even with the podcast, coming up to celebrating two years, it'll be two years in June, 2026, I've been doing this podcast every single week. And it's something I really love. It's definitely something that I had a lot of fear about and still have fear about. that is something I'm so glad that I did it. I've learned a lot through it. I've met some amazing people. Some incredible opportunities have come out of it. So when I think about that, like what's the best that could happen now? Like moving forward, what's the best thing that could happen now? And also I think really one thing I'm gonna leave you with is just really challenging yourself on what's true and what's not true. I think sometimes when we don't meet our own expectations or other people's or society's expectations of where we are in life. That causes fear, that causes doubt, that causes feelings of failure. But you get one of them, you get one chance. And for me, I want my experience here on earth for as long as I've got it to be as extraordinary as possible, filled with difficult moments because that is where we grow and pushing myself out of my comfort zone as much as I possibly can. I hope you've enjoyed this solar episode today. I always enjoy the solar episodes in between the guests. I think there are so many things that are happening with people right now. And I think if you took a moment, just a few minutes, just to stop what you were doing and listen to this. I appreciate you and I will see you on the next one.