Don't Let Fear Destroy Your Productivity
Roslyn (my business partner and wonderful wife) and I attended Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Academy in San Diego. It’s just one of the many events we try to attend every year, as a way to better ourselves and our company. We spent four days learning how to b
e our best selves in four different areas:
- Mindset
- Productivity
- Persuasion With People
- Psychological Peace
I realize some of that can sound like woo-woo kind of stuff, but I swear, it’s not crazy. On the Productivity day, there was one thing that stood out to Roslyn and me:
Fear. Fear is part of the human condition.
However, if you remember the acronym for F.E.A.R., which is False Expectations Appearing Real, you’ll realize that 99 percent of the things we fear never materialize. Everyone deals with fear at some point, and it’s important that we don’t let it define us. How we handle fear is the key to what either moves us forward toward our goals, or keeps us stifled and right where we are.
But not all fear is the same. At the High Performance Academy, we learned about three different types.
TYPE 1: The fear of losing something you hold near and dear.
TYPE 2: The fear of not attaining something you really want, because you perceive that it’s impossible to obtain.
TYPE 3: The fear of failure — trying to go after something, only to have it not work out in your favor.
Regardless of whether you’re new to the industry or are a seasoned veteran, fear will try to stop you one way or another. If you’re out of your comfort zone or doing something you’re not familiar with, fear will give you every excuse to go back to your old ways.
But I often find that whatever we fear is a mile wide, a mile high, and paper-thin.
All you have to do is poke your finger through it! Whatever we fear is bigger in our mind than it is in reality. And in the end, 99 percent of those fears will never materialize.
In order to succeed, it’s important to honor our struggles and not give into the fear. Even if you try something new and it fails, you aren’t really failing; what you’ve learned is what doesn’t work, and that’s all a part of the journey. It’s important to adopt a new mindset, rather than stick with a plan or process you’re not happy with. It’s okay to fear the unexpected, but ask yourself, What am I actually afraid of? Once you know that, embrace it and move forward.
For our company, moving forward from fear means high performance, or excelling beyond our comfort zone consistently for the long term. We’re even considering pursuing a certificate in high-performance coaching as an extension to our business.
Whatever comfort zone you’re trying to get out of, keep going! Don’t let fear stop you from productivity and achieving a greater level of personal and business success.
Talk to you soon!
