Scare Your Soul: 7 Powerful Principles to Harness Fear and Lead Your Most Courageous Life

by Scott Simon

Overview

"A sharply packaged self-help book with an emphasis on facing your fears." (Kirkus)

Find the courage to run toward your fears, embrace uncertainty, and get the most out of life by practicing courageous habits every day with the helpful guidance of this powerful book.​

It’s not easy to be courageous. Feelings of fear and uncertainty often stop us dead in our tracks. But what if you had the courage to take action anyway? What changes would you make to transform your current reality into the life of your dreams?

Here’s the good news — like a muscle, courage grows stronger the more you exercise it. And Scare Your Soul will not only teach you how to exercise courage but will guide you in taking small, boundary-pushing actions to expand your comfort zone (so that you feel less fear and more confidence with each action).

By combining research on positive psychology with real-life stories of Scare Your Soul participants, international thought leader and happiness entrepreneur Scott Simon challenges you to confront your limiting beliefs. With writing prompts, activities, and real-world challenges, Scare Your Soul is an interactive roadmap to building bravery.

Scare Your Soul teaches you that the greatest antidote to much of what ails you in your life isn’t achievement, it’s action. So if you crave an extraordinary life but feel like you don’t know how to take “extra” ordinary action, this book is for you.

It’s time to Scare Your Soul.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538722916
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	647,779
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Scott Simon is a happiness entrepreneur and founder of Scare Your Soul. He is dedicated to creating, curating, and leading opportunities for people around the world to be happier and more courageous. Scott founded the Scare Your Soul organization in 2015, organically growing it from one Facebook post to a global movement with sixty volunteer ambassadors worldwide. He has presented to groups around the world, appeared widely on TV and podcasts, given a TEDx Talk, and brought his passion for courage to retreats, a life coaching practice, and mindfulness meditations in person and online.

Table of Contents

Introduction xvii

Part I Getting Started: Working Your Courage Muscles

1 The Eight Words That Changed My Life 3

2 The Power of the Blank Page 16

3 Waking Up to the Dreams We've Forgotten 20

4 Designing Your Audacious Courage Manifesto 32

Part II Diving Deepen Harnessing Fear, Flight, and Failure

5 Harnessing Our Fears 45

6 Removing Before Flight 63

7 Screwing Up Is Sexy 76

Part III Taking Action: Seven Principles for Leading a Scare Your Soul Life

8 Courage Principle One: Gratitude 91

9 Courage Principle Two: Adventure 110

10 Courage Principle Three: Energy 127

11 Courage Principle Four: Curiosity 148

12 Courage Principle Five: Awe 170

13 Courage Principle Six: Forgiveness 186

14 Courage Principle Seven: Work 205

Part IV Moving Forward: The Journey Ahead

15 Those Who Go the Hard Way with Us 223

16 The Journey Ahead 238

Appendix: Deeper Practice 247

Notes 249

Index 255

About the Author 263

Editorial Reviews

10/17/2022

This competent debut from performance coach Simon encourages readers to chase their dreams and face their fears. He shares strategies to build courage and outlines seven principles to facilitate a fulfilling life: gratitude, adventure, energy, curiosity, awe, forgiveness, and work. The author recounts growing up as a shy child until a moment of panic on a flight to Israel for his first post-college job led him to adopt the mantra, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Explaining that the brain’s amygdala can bypass consciousness when sending fear responses to the body, Simon discusses how to overcome this knee-jerk response by slowing down to evaluate if a fear is legitimate and developing new understandings of past events that may contribute to one’s fears. He details steps one can take to enact his seven principles, urging readers to nurture gratitude by considering the “nontangible gifts that nature, spirituality, community give,” as well as practicing forgiveness by considering the ways in which the offending party is a “wounded person raised by other wounded people.” Exhortations for readers to lean into what they’re afraid of are not new (Simon’s mantra is an apocryphal quote often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt), but Simon’s enthusiasm and sincerity buoy the familiar advice. This is worth a look. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-08-01
Simon advocates taking daily risks in this debut motivational work.

The author, an entrepreneur, is a fear-chaser; he believes that the secret to happiness is not to be found through self-care or comfort but rather by challenging one’s own fears. “It is the intentional choice we make to walk into the fire of fear with the hope of growing from its discomfort…that fosters a flourishing life,” Simon writes in his introduction (he’s describing his decision, at age 35, to confront a lifelong fear of singing in public by signing up for a busy brunch open mic). The book—which shares its name with the “movement” Simon created—is intended to challenge readers to confront their own deep-seated fears. The idea is inspired by a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that the author calls the “eight words that changed [his] life”: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” He has expanded the notion into a full-fledged life philosophy, distilling the concept into seven principles to help would-be fear-chasers break out of their normal routines. Simon describes himself as a “happiness entrepreneur,” and his prose is cheerfully imperative. He offers bullet points advising the reader on how to have an adventurous day without even leaving home: “Begin the day by waking up early. Drink in the quietness”; “Vary as many of your most basic routines as you can (brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, take a completely different route to work)”; “Put on an outfit or a hat that shows your true personality, even if you think it’s completely crazy.” The book follows a familiar self-help recipe—one part personal memoir, one part inspiring anecdotes, and one part exercises for readers to try out on their own. While little here is entirely original, the author’s fear-forward take on mindfulness should appeal to those meditation-allergic readers looking to become more exciting versions of themselves.

A sharply packaged self-help book with an emphasis on facing your fears.

Kirkus Reviews

This is an empowering and inspiring book! If you want to lead the life you're meant to lead, this is the compass you ought to take along."—Tal Ben-Shahar, author of international bestsellers Happier and Being Happy

“In a world that feels so dark and full of fear, this book is a lantern for the courageous way forward.”—Jennifer Pastiloff, best-selling author of On Being Human

“I used to think being fearless was enough, until I read this book. It's a game-changer.”—Turney Duff, author of the New York Times bestseller The Buy Side

"For any wallflowers desiring to encompass boldness—this is for you.”—Janne Robinson, author and poet

From the Publisher

In a world that feels so dark and full of fear, this book is a lantern for the courageous way forward.

best-selling author of On Being Human Jennifer Pastiloff

For any wallflowers desiring to encompass boldness—this is for you.

author and poet Janne Robinson

I used to think being fearless was enough, until I read this book. It's a game-changer.

author of the New York Times bestseller The Buy Si Turney Duff

This is an empowering and inspiring book! If you want to lead the life you're meant to lead, this is the compass you ought to take along.

author of international bestsellers Happier and Be Tal Ben-Shahar