Now that you have your big-picture vision, your financial foundation and your reinvention goal, what could be holding you back? Let’s talk about fear!
Fear is defined as a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. In coaching, we call these ‘gremlins’ or the ‘inner critic’, which represent the voices in our head (aka ‘thoughts’) that result in feelings and behavior.
It is important to understand that fear has a positive purpose. Fear provides opportunity! Fear can:
- Help you identify areas of growth.
- Give you a signal that you are outside your comfort zone. Change—good or bad—involves discomfort, so it is useful to be uncomfortable if it means you are working toward a cherished goal. It’s a signal of progress!
- Allow you to demonstrate courage. Accomplishing a goal is much sweeter when you’ve had to overcome fear to achieve it.
What are some ways to manage your fears? Here are five tactics that can help:
- Sharing & Support: Talk to someone (friend, therapist, coach) who has been through what you’re facing or who can act as a sounding board.
- Memory: Survey your past and make a list of times when you’ve succeeded despite your fears. This can help you understand that even when action seems scary, you will survive (and probably thrive!).
- Identify the signifier: Go deeper into your fear and identify what value you think is being threatened. Then you can objectively analyze ways to address that.
- Look for role models: Often, others have overcome the very same thing we fear. Those people can provide both inspiration and tactical information on how to overcome what it is you fear.
- Ask yourself the Core Question: Use this question to help you get perspective on your fears, which is the first step in overcoming them:
- What is the worst thing that could happen? If that happened, could I overcome it?
Be sure to take some time to work through your reinvention fears in the course workbook.
