Stop being afraid of things that will never happen.
Fear holds back every single one of us from doing things that we know we should do.
The problem is we usually fear the worst case scenario. We play a movie in our mind of all the things that could possibly go wrong and I know how easy it is to quit before you even start. The more innovative/amazing the project is, the more problems you're mind will come up saying it's not worth it.
That's fear.
In "The War of Art" Steven Pressfield calls it Resistance.
Resistance appears when we are about to do something valuable. It wants us to stay within our comfort zone. It does anything it possibly can to keep us from taking steps toward accomplishing our goals.
It knows there are risks involved so it makes sure to remind us of everything that could go wrong.
Pressfield has an interesting take on this. He says you can be guided by your fears or 'resistance.'
Every time I walk on stage, I have to face a lot of fears face to face. There's nothing to hide behind. It's just me and the audience. This is me performing for college students in their cafeteria on campus at George Brown College in Toronto last week.
He says, "Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it."
It's the same old story of facing your fears head on.
Just remember this. Your biggest fears about whatever you want to do will probably never come true.
Whether you pursue that thing that you've been thinking about or not, you'll have pretty similar experiences with your fears coming true.
- Your first option is to quit, give up, don't even try. Your fears won't come true because if you never try you can never fail.
- On the other hand, when you go for it, the worst case scenario problems that you have been thinking about will almost never be how things play out.
Either way, your fears aren't coming true, so why are you still at option 1?
In the second option you prove to your dumb fears that you can do things despite their attempt to stop you and ALSO you accomplish the stuff you've been longing for!
This doesn't mean the fear is defeated and goes away. Now you've broken through certain fears linked to that accomplishment so now you've opened the gates for new goals, bigger accomplishments on your mental horizon.
Fears and resistance have been waiting for this, but you've proved them wrong before, and you'll do it again. All you have to do is tell them they're wrong and figure out a way to prove it to them. Prove it to yourself. Prove it to the world.
Fear is against you, but I'm with you. Let's do this.
What is something you've been dying to start? Sometimes you just need someone to chat out some ideas, so let's talk.
- What are you working on?
- Have you started?
- What's holding you back?
- How can I help?
Use the form to send a message. Everything you submit will be kept confidential and will only be seen by you and me. I don't want anything in return. I'm facing some of my fears by writing a blog like this and all I want is to help you do the same.
