You Can Do Fear
Is your WHY greater than your fear?
Fear happens when you begin to see things in the world that don’t make sense to you. The things you thought you knew — the things that helped you feel stable and clear — are now in question.And my goodness, this current state for us all is complex. While we all crave certainty in varying degrees — it is safe to say that we are experiencing a mixture of hope and fear that is unnerving for everyone.
Hope and fear have always been experienced by humans and are embedded in our brain’s structure. The ‘flight or fight’ response has evolved in our frontal cortex.
Recent studies indicate that directing our thoughts towards the positive — hope — results in our frontal cortex communicating with subcortical regions deep in our brains. The human tendency to embrace a posture of hope has led to our survival.
We have all witnessed this in the response of our key workers since the beginning of the pandemic as they continue to demonstrate to us a posture of hope amongst hopelessness.
Don’t Look Down
It is essential to understand that the path of courage isn’t the path of no fear. Instead, the path of courage is feeling afraid and then doing what you need or want to do anyway.
A time of uncertainty can be a learning moment if we decide to tolerate ambiguity.
Everyone You Meet Is Doing Their Best
Harnessing the power of empathy is a vital tool for us to navigate uncertainty and turbulence. Everyone you meet faces fears of their own, and you are put in their path to give them hope. By merely saying to folks who matter most to you: “I know this is hard, I’m scared too, and I care” enables us all to ‘do fear’.
If someone is driving you crazy, be kind. Kindness connects us to the depths of our own hearts and propels us in our quest to discover the power of dignity and empathy.
Moving Forward
In their book, Creative Confidence, Tom and David Kelley from IDEO underline the importance of us learning to be comfortable with uncertainty and instead of being paralysed by the prospect of failure. In essence, we should embrace uncertainty as an opportunity to be able to leap into action.
If you have a big enough WHY you can do whatever you need to do.
No one can remove that fear for you, but a mentor, friend or coach can help you get back in touch with your WHY.
When you’re in touch with a big enough WHY you will do whatever you need to do.
Psychologist Robert Sternberg, who has done lots of research on intelligence, wisdom, creativity, and leadership, tells us that all the creative people he has studied had the following traits in common:
- Redefine problems in new ways to seek out solutions
2. Take sensible risks and accept failure as part of the creative process.
3. Confront the obstacles that arise from challenging the status quo.
4. Tolerate uncertainty.
5. Develop a thirst to keep adding to their skill set, rather than letting their knowledge stagnate.
So, what would you do if you weren’t afraid?
