Does Fear Protect Your Business Or Just Inhibit Growth?
Sep 17th, 2009 by David Svet
What keeps you up at night worrying about your business or job? Would you like to put an end to it? Here’s an exercise from Patti Digh’s book life is a verb that may help you. Write a list of everything that comes to mind — every fear that you have about your work. Now do it again and then one more time. You should have a pretty comprehensive list of everything that has ever kept you up at night. My guess is it ranges from copying the wrong person on an email to dieing from botulism contracted from a vending machine in the lunchroom — rational to irrational (otherwise you should really call the vending machine operator). Next, draw a circle around each item that is a rational fear that actually keeps you safe, like being on your guard when you are alone in the parking lot at night.
What’s left? In most cases they are all the irrational fears and self-limitations. They are the ego driven fears about a loss of face — stubborn pride. Those are the fears that are keeping you and your work from being the best that it should be. Some fear is good — the fears that protect us and keep us alive. All of the rest is garbage that is keeping you and your business small. They are the petty distractions that make you mad. They are the self-destructive thoughts that make you quit before you start. They are the second guessing and doubts that slow you down and keep you from seizing great opportunities when they are well within your reach.
What would your life look like if you used the list of circled fears as a touchstone or litmus test for the rest of your fears? Should the new fear be on the list? Yes? Good, you’re safer. No? Seize the day.
“They [fears] are the second guessing and doubts that slow you down and keep you from seizing great opportunities when they are well within your reach.”
i’m sure this statement applies to many. the subject of fear (especially within the context of self-doubt) is quite large and weighted. while it’s only natural for us to feel this way, the one thing i’ve learned based on many hard learned lessons is to utlimately trust in yourself, in your own will and ability to seize an opportunity, address a dilemma, propose a workaround, make a stand based on your intuitions, and share the cumulative knowledge you have that eventually empowers others.
a close friend once asked me rhetorically: “is it [this fear] going to kill you?” what a way to drop the anvil of objectivity and bring things into perspective.
by the same token, businesses should not allow themselves to frees up in self-doubt, despite moments when they are most challenged. in fact, it’s precisely during those moments when they need to muster their will to seize opportunities to bring clarity and focus in their game. otherwise, we’re looking at Hamlet all over again
thanks for the thoughtful share dave - autom
Great thoughts, Autom! Yes, we should all read Hamlet, but no one should have to re-live Hamlet.
David
I have fears but I try and work through them and break the cycle. You can’t get your first job by just sitting back and not doing anything. So even though I have not been hired I keep working towards my goal in hopes of someone will understand me and understand which I am proactive plus I try and volunteer to work conferences because I can’t afford them. I am going to work on networking phone calls next.
Nice post as ever David-Seize the day indeed.
Thanks for this, Dave! Truly you have identified a critical first step - being conscious enough to recognize which are fears we should pay attention to, and which are the ones to “get past” (for my own lack of a better word this morning).
That said, fear is hard-wired into our brains. It is why people will believe the most ridiculous nonsense if it matches and feeds into their fears. And so it is important to have a Step 2, for after we recognize the irrational fears - the step that can actually get us past those fears.
For each of us the method will be different. For me, I find it helpful to ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?” For others, it may take something else. But, as you note, none of that can happen until we see those fears for what they are, and, more importantly, for what their effect is in our lives. Thanks for a great reminder!
Hildy
Thanks Hildy. That’s a great point — we need to a way to get past the fear. I agree that asking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” is a great way to disarm a fear. I usually find that the worst isn’t all that bad and rarely happens.
David
Hildy, thanks for tweeting this! I agree that a next step is necessary, and that asking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” is a great option. I don’t remember where I heard it, but I do remember someone recommending that once you imagine the worst that can happen, you need to fully visualize it happening AND visualize surviving it and moving on. Then you basically accept the possibility that it may happen and that you’re willing to take that risk and move forward.
Most of the time what you fear never materializes, but even if it does you have already decided you can live with it and recover.
Heidi