“Do It Scared” is a new book by the author, Ruth Soukup. I had the privilege to get a sneak-peak at the book before its official release.
Ruth is a successful entrepreneur at Ruth Soukup Omnimedia, Inc., a New York Times bestselling author, the creator of Elite Blog Academy, and a blogger at LivingWellSpendingLess.
I have been a fan of her work for years and she always delivers high-quality content. “Do It Scared” is no exception. She examines the role fear plays in your life and how to overcome it and create a life you love.
“Do It Scared” Book Overview
In the book, she deeply examines fear and categorizes it into seven fear archetypes.
Ruth faced many personal challenges such as divorce, bankruptcy, and suicide attempts. She shares her own struggle with fear and her path to overcoming it. More on her “Do It Scared” movement can be found here.
It’s an easy read and offers a lot of valuable insight into determining your personal type of fear and how to move past it.
The Seven Fear Archetypes
In the book, Ruth talks about fear and why we humans have fear. She hired a group of researchers and did an extensive study of four thousand people.
From the data, she created seven fear archetypes.
The seven fear archetypes are:
- Procrastinator
- Rule Follower
- People Pleaser
- Outcast
- Self-Doubter
- Excuse Maker
- Pessimist.
Each archetype is characterized by specific traits. (ie- the most common fear archetype, the Procrastinator, is afraid of making mistakes). Also, each type of fear archetype isn’t entirely negative because each archetype has positive qualities as well. For example, even though the Procrastinator (also known as the Perfectionist fear archetype) hesitates on taking action they also demonstrate great attention to detail and deliver high-quality work.
All of us have a little of each of these fear archetypes within us but we have one dominant type and few secondary types.
“Do It Scared” Assessment
The online fear assessment determines your fear archetypes and can be found here. There is a free version and a paid version of the assessment. The unpaid version will give your dominant fear type. Whereas the paid version will give you all of your fear types and lots of details on your top three fear types and how they interact.
The assessment provides a lot of specific insight according to your personal fear type. It can show you what fear is holding you back, characteristics of your fear archetype, and how your different assigned fear archetypes interact. Also, it provides suggestions and actionable strategies (according to your fear archetype) to help you move past the fear.
The Principles of Courage
Throughout the rest of the book, Ruth shares her own path to “Doing It Scared.”
She created the “Principles of Courage” to counteract and replace fear in your life. Also, she shares her wisdom on how to dream big and create stretch goals.
The “Principles of Courage” are below.
- Dare to Think Big
- Rules Are for Suckers
- Always Own It
- Embrace Honest Feedback
- There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons
- Balance Is Overrated
- Just Keep Going
Ruth believes that courage is like a muscle and the more you use it the stronger it gets.
She has overcome many obstacles and has accomplished some pretty amazing things.
Some of the content she shares in the book is very similar to some of her “Do It Scared” Podcast content. I am familiar with it because I follow her work but it is all really good, worthwhile stuff.
I don’t want to spoil all the fun and give away too much so you will have to check out the book for yourself.
The “Do It Scared” Concept is Life-Changing for Me
Even the “Do It Scared” concept itself is life-changing for me. I awaited the day that I would no longer be afraid and thought when the fear was gone then I would take action. The problem is that that day will never come. I will always be scared of something.
The whole “Do It Scared” movement finally made me come to terms with the fact that I’m never going to be free of fear. I have to feel the fear but do it anyway.
Since reading the book and adhering to the “Do It Scared” philosophy, I’ve taken action on a lot of projects that I was just too scared to start before (including this blog!).
My Own “Do It Scared” Moment
One of the most life-changing aspects of this book is that it makes you aware of your own fear patterns.
I am a Procrastinator, People Pleaser, Outcast! Wow, triple whammy! When I did the assessment and read the book I couldn’t help but think “Oh my goodness. That is so true! I do do this, don’t I?”
Sometimes you are not conscious of your patterns and why you do them. This assessment really shed light on my own unique fear paradigm. It made me realize why I do what I do sometimes. Since reading, “Do It Scared” I can see a difference in my life because once I became aware of these patterns I started to change them.
“Do It Scared” and Intentional Living
For the past several years I have been living a more intentional life (or trying to). Intentional living is when one lives in alignment with their purpose and passion.
More about my journey and tips on Intentional Living can be found here.
This book and assessment have greatly helped me in this journey. It has made me more conscious of my fears and what is holding me back in different areas. Only when I identified my fear patterns could I intentionally change them.
Conclusion of the just “Do It Scared” Movement and Book Review
In conclusion, I highly recommend this book and feel it could be a gamechanger for anyone looking to identify their fear and move past it. I really like that it is completely personalized and feel the information is very useful and spot-on. It offers a lot of specific and life-changing suggestions to take action.
It’s totally worth it to gain powerful insight into your own fears and how to move past them.
So, go ahead and just “Do It Scared!”
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