Kicking Fear In The Butt

Recently I had to do something for my business that took me right out of my comfort zone.

I was really nervous and when I get nervous I find it hard to think clearly.

I had some serious heart pounding moments in anticipation of the activity I had to do.

Let’s just say I was definitely in fight or flight mode imaging all of the things that might go wrong with that awful fear of failure looming large.

Luckily, I have several great supporters (which we all need if we want to go after big goals in our lives) who helped me get clarity.

One of these supporters is very clever friend who’s also a professional coach.

She helped me turn a significant corner and I’d like to share her wisdom with you.

What was stressing me out was my potential for failing and the outcomes of what would happen if I did fail. What a heavy burden to bear when you are trying to be productive. I find that when I go into this mode it feels like I don’t have access to at least 50% of my intelligence. I also mistake fear for resistance and underplay the importance of the activity.

Here was the new perspective she offered.

She suggested I stop thinking about the outcome and the response of others but instead focus only on what I want to learn and achieve from the experience.

So I jotted down 5-6 things the experience could offer me. I wrote down how much better I would be next time around, how much more confidence I would have, what I could learn from the opportunity, along with a few other specific goals.

It was amazing. All at once the pressure lifted and I got access to my brain again.

In the end the experience was great, so much better than I could have expected and it was actually fun.

So the next time you get freaked out about something that you have to do that is way outside your comfort zone stop thinking about the audience and their response and selfishly think about what you can get out of the situation regardless of the outcome.

Trust me it’s very liberating.