Feel the Fear...And Do It Anyway.

I’ve been reading a lot lately on fear, well, because I’ve been experiencing some. From the obvious covid-19 fear to that middle of the night fear. You know the one – where you think about whether you watered the garden and that turns into a paralyzing notion about ruining the lives of those around you. At 3am, everything is an emergency – logic be damned.

It makes perfect sense that anxiety is high right now, given all that is going on around us. I’ve been looking for thoughts on how to handle some of the anxiety that we as humans can be faced with each day. And what’s funny is it’s even easy to get anxious about the amount of resources out there to combat fear of the unknown! So I’ll offer one that I believe is tried and true.

Susan Jeffers, an accomplished author and speaker wrote a book called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. In it Jeffers proposed that we can better manage our fears so that they no longer debilitate us by developing a resiliency of fear. Her basic concepts:

1. There are different types of fear

2. We all feel certain degrees of fear when we try something new.

3. If we let fear debilitate us, we end up feeling helpless.

4. When we repeatedly play the role of victim, we reinforce distrust in ourselves. We also create chronic fear.

5. We can minimize our experience of feeling fear by monitoring our self-talk. We can increase our empowering thoughts and talk.

6. The way to manage our fear is to take steps forward and take action.

7. Taking risks can help us build our resiliency muscle to needless fear. We can begin to trust and love ourselves enough to say, yes to opportunities.

8. We can learn how to make informed decisions, which will lessen our fear.

9. We are responsible for our thoughts, feelings, and the choices we make, and can make.

10. We will create a fulfilling life when we accept that loss, change, mistakes and challenges are a part of life. We can decide, “I can handle it!”

It can feel so easy for external conditions to become real issues that plague us, regardless of the odds of us being personally affected. I think about my work, my business and the anxiety of the market… and I have to pause and pivot to do #6 above – take steps forward and take action.

Structure the day to cross things off my list.

Send that powerful email.

Make the new client call.

Be the expert coach I know I am.

If the current world state or your own challenges have got you down, I invite you to consider the above and take that first step toward action.

As Susan Jeffers said, “If everyone feels fear when approaching something totally new in life, yet so many are out there doing it despite the fear, then we must conclude that fear is not the problem.”

Take one step and then another and celebrate each one. Feel that fear… and do it anyway!