Growing Beyond Fear: Part 2
Because your brain is hard-wired for fear, you'll never be able to eliminate it.
Because you're an ambitious professional, you'll never be able to avoid it.
But here’s some good news…
You can get better acquainted with your fear and learn to outgrow it.
Growing beyond your hyper-rational fear is some of the most transformational work you can do.
So if there's a career move you're afraid to make, or a bold idea you’ve been afraid to pursue, here are six step to help you outgrow fear this spring:
1. Check in to distinguish your fear
Ask yourself honestly:
Am I conflating Primal fear and Hyper-rational fear?
2. If you are stuck in hyper-rational fear, listen more closely
Try to tune into your most fear-driven thoughts. Close your eyes if it helps, and see if you can hear the answers to these questions:
What does my fear tell me?
What does it want to protect me from?
What simple effort(s) does it hijack?
What has it cost me?
What will it cost me?
Your answers will undoubtedly reveal an inner part of you that’s worth making peace with first, and an awareness that your ‘rational’ thinking isn’t so rational after all
3. Acknowledge all the ways you’ve already learned to trust yourself
Spend a few moments writing down:
Skills I’ve developed…
Resources I’ve gathered…
Relationships I’ve cultivated…
…and do not be humble!
See how many capabilities you can reconnect with in 8 minutes!
4. Activate those skills, resources, and relationships today
Make an effort to bring your specific skills, resources, and relationships to work today. Behave like you first, so you can think later.
Working with your strengths and capabilities helps keeps fear at bay. #justdoit
5. Commit to one awe-some experience in the next two weeks
Gift yourself that mix of fear and wonder, and make sure it is a real, tangible experience.
There is a reason the most successful professionals dabble in mental, physical and spiritual challenges…because fearlessness isn’t learned at the whiteboard, it is an embodied practice.
6. Apply insights from that experience to your work this month
Choose one awe-some insight from one awe-some experience.
Keep it simple. Keep it specific.
Bring that ‘a-ha’ energy to a specific project at work, or channel it into the big idea you want to pursue.
Sometimes unprofessional adventures can help us remember that our professional fears aren’t so scary after all.
