Up until recently I had a major cloud hanging over my head. Not in a literal sense, although living in Scotland that may well be the case, but I suffered from severe panic attacks that affected my life on quite a serious level. Yeah, yeah, I know you’ve heard me talk about that before, but stay with me.

Every day I’d awake with this ‘issue’ at the back of my head; knowing that to fully rid myself of The Fear I’d have to confront what would cause me the most distress — flying. Yep, getting on a plane was possibly the scariest thing I could ever do.

I knew that in achieving this, however, it would not only mark the end of a very difficult journey, but it would subsequently remove a hefty weight from my shoulders. I wasn’t quite prepared for how greatly it would affect me. When I faced this final hurdle, I not only felt a sense of liberation I know I’ll never experience again, but most importantly it freed up all this energy I had been subconsciously storing away for anxiety.

Let me do a better job of explaining this. In worrying about my anxiety every day, I was unawarely investing a lot of mental energy into it. When I removed the issue that was using up so much energy, I suddenly had an abundance of excess energy I could channel elsewhere.

As you can guess from my opening paragraph, I chose to invest said energy mainly into work.

Since returning from my weekend in England, the weekend that got me on the plane, I have been an absolute workhorse; all I want to do is get shit done. It feels fantastic. I’ve also been using this newfound energy to work on my body and get fit, so I really feel like I’m striking the perfect work / life balance, something I’ve never experienced before. Again, it feels fantastic. The only downside, which is pretty laughable, is that I’m finding it hard to spend evenings being unproductive. I’ve found my love for video games has dwindled as I have so much energy, sitting on the sofa for hours at a time just isn’t cutting it.

As you can see, the solution — despite how hard it was for me to do — was essentially very simple. I just had to face my fear. Whatever issue that’s eating up your energy — whether it be a draining relationship or a taxing and unfulfilling job — remove the problem and make way for a clearer, unpolluted mental attitude. You need to remove the problem and consequently free up your mind to achieve whatever it is you desire. It’s hard, but I’m going to assume you’re bright enough to know that the hardest things in life are always the things worth doing.