From: Lifehack - Wednesday Feb 14, 2018 02:04 pm
Hi guys, hope you're having a great week so far. I've been receiving a huge number of responses so far with some amazing feedback and ideas. Thank you and please keep them coming. These are shaping the things that I'm going to be talking about each day. It looks like a big pain point is simply getting things into motion. You've gathered the right perspective and the right actions to take... but something is stopping you from a real breakthrough to build momentum. What's stopping you? The truth is that nobody is stopping you. It's yourself! We all spend our lives inside either one or both of these two cages - our Comfort Zone and our Fear. Today I'm going to talk about Fear. God knows we've got all sorts of fears, we even have scientific names for most of them! Is fear your enemy? Definitely not. Fear is a very useful emotion to have, because it can push us to do things that incentives can't. We hear about overcoming our fears a lot. I want to quickly show you how to control it so that you can push forward instead. At the end of the day, every fear distills down into one thing: the fear of a result - a negative result. On the other side of the coin, there's the expectation of a positive result that is trying to get you to break through. This push and pull is where most people are usually stuck. You have a goal that you want to achieve, but your fear is creating huge resistance. The key to controlling fear then, is to control your expectations. I don't mean changing your original goal. I mean breaking down your expectations into smaller ones. For example, say you are terrified of doing presentations but you know it's a huge opportunity to show senior management your leadership potential. So your pushing and pulling forces are: The Positive Expectation: Success and a chance for a promotion or career boost. This is your motivator. The Feared Negative Result: You mess up and lose respect and opportunities. This is your cage. Note that we always imagine the worst case which usually doesn't happen. Break down your expectations: "Success" is just a result. You can't control it. Throw it out the window! Expectations should be based on achievable outputs. For example you can aim instead to: Not be fearful when standing in front of many people Be able to speak clearly and project your voice in a large sized room Present naturally, and not have to rely on rote memory to recall my slides These expectations are achievable. If you fulfil them, you have a pretty good chance at success. You can plan systematic actions to help you fulfil all of these. Importantly, because they are more solid, these expectations don't have a fear component to them! You've just removed a huge barrier to push forward. There's more you can try, and I cover them in How to Fight Back the Human Instinct to Flee When You Panic. Remember, everything worth achieving takes effort. There's always resistance and obstacles. Fear is a powerful pushing force - learn to control and harness it! There's a lot more where these are coming from, so if you want more like this or if you'd like me to share other topics, please send me your feedback. Cheers! - Leon 
