As many of you are regular readers of this blog or follow me on Facebook or twitter, you’ll know that THE book is finally finished. I have actually held a printed version in my hands.. It is actually happening! Finally.
So, I thought it was a very good time to talk about fear, because this whole process has at times, been quite terrifying.
It’s an interesting thing fear; sometimes it seems so more rational to not do something, than to give it a go and fail..
That’s the lizard brain talking, ever so sensibly (or so it seems), trying to rationalise and protect. After all, what happens if you give it a go and it all goes horribly wrong? What happens if you FAIL at what you are trying to do?
Hand in hand with fear goes vulnerability. The fear of putting yourself out there and being vulnerable to what happens next. Yikes. Perhaps, the lizard brain says, it is better to do nothing and be safe, than do something and fail.
To my way of thinking though, the wonderful Seth Godin is right.
Fear is the best compass you have that you are on the right track.
There’s some exhilarating around not exactly knowing what is going to happen next. About knowing that yes, it may all go wrong. But that, you’ve done what you set out to do. You’ve given it your best shot etc etc..
It is really interesting that we teach our kids to “just give it a go”. We tell them it doesn’t matter if they fail, but at least they tried. We “encourage” them to put themselves in new (and scary) situations every day. And why? Because we know that is how you learn. That is how you grow. That’s how you work out what you are good and what you are not good at. That’s how you learn about winning and losing. That’s how you learn to deal with feedback (good and bad).
So, it’s an interesting thing, that when we grow up, when we should know better, when we should have learnt all those lessons, we revert. We stop taking risks. We don’t do things that are scary, for fear of failure. Sure, you could argue we have more to “lose”. But do we really?
So, what’s scaring you at the moment? What are you putting off for fear of failure or being vulnerable? What’s the absolute worse thing that could happen if you did it? And is that so bad? And, contemplate, just for a moment, what’s the best thing that could happen… Then, use that fear compass that Seth talks about and keep going!
Until next week,
Ps — thanks so much to all those who have pre-ordered a copy of the book at the Early Bird Price. If you’d like to order one (or send this onto a friend who might like to order one), just follow the link..
