Master Your Fear

In this week's Moving Forward Monday we run head on at the #1 thing that holds most of us back from reaching our true potential... FEAR.

We are hard-wired to be fearful of anything unknown or unfamiliar. It is a well-preserved biological defense mechanism that has been developed and honed over thousands of years of mankind's evolution. And it serves us well when we encounter a new animal that might eat us, or the first time we peer into a gorge that would certainly kill us if we jumped. But there are many times when this emotional, irrational response is not our friend.

When we think about taking on a new endeavor, we get excited about the prospect and the vision that appears before our eyes. But soon after the initial excitement wears down, our trusty mental defenses come to the rescue and start to remind us of all the things that could go wrong, of all the loss and pain that forging into something unknown could inflict. And many of us stop there. Or worse, some of us move forward only to sabotage ourselves, getting locked into a dance with the chase that prolongs the result (just in case it's bad). Either way those of us who don't Master Our Fear, will never know what we could have accomplished; we'll never reach our true potential.

To be successful, to reach our true potential, we must learn to Master Our Fear. This doesn't mean run out and do anything and everything, but instead learn to control our response so that we can properly evaluate each opportunity on its own merits. We must use our fear in harmony with our instincts to let us know when something is not right, but then redirect it when it gets in our way of progressing. We can learn to use the fear to drive us to succeed instead of holding us back.

So how do we Master Our Fear? This week Bruce Pulver, author of Above the Chatter, Our Words Matter, shares some thoughts with Fishbowl on ways to become our own Master.

Sometimes we're afraid to chase our dream, letting the pursuit challenge us. And so it becomes a mantelpiece whose elusiveness we hold in high regard. But if we are to make progress, we must learn to become our own MASTER...

Make peace w/uncertainty

Allow a vision of greatness

Seek to improve each day

Treat stumbles as steps

Embrace the growth grind

Rejoice in the process

So this week, if your fears are holding you back from your dream, Master Your Fear by realizing that you are your own Master, and that you cannot achieve what you don't attempt.

Fishbowl Members - ask us about the Goal Setting for Success workshop that will give you the tools to become the Master of your destiny!

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