Fear Is the Great Indicator

doing what’s needed to move in the right direction.

An absence of concerns signals that you are only doing what’s comfortable for you—and that will only get you more of what you have right now. As strange as it may sound, you want to be scared until you have to push yourself to new levels to experience fear again. In fact, the only thing that scares me is a complete lack of fear.

What is fear anyway? Does it exist? Is it real? I know it feels real when you are experiencing it, but admit it: Most of the time, what you fear doesn’t even occur. It’s been said that

FEAR stands for False Events Appearing Real, which aptly implies that most of what you’re afraid of doesn’t ever come to pass. Fear, for the most part, is provoked by emotions, not rational thinking. And in my humble estimation, emotions are wildly overrated—and the scapegoat many people use for their failure to act. But regardless of whether you agree with my opinion on emotions, you must reframe your understand- ing of fear and use it as a reason to move forward rather than as an excuse to stop or retreat. Use this frequently avoided feeling as a green light to signal you to what you sftould do!

Chances are that when you were a child, you found fear in irrational things—the boogeyman under the bed, for example. It was an indicator to check your closet and the dark corners of your room to see what was lurking. But as all children eventually find, the boogeyman does not exist anywhere except in your head. Adults have their own “boogeymen”—the unknown, rejection, failure, success, and so on. And these boogeymen should be a sign to take action as well. For example, if you’re afraid to call on a client, then it’s a sign that you should call that client. Fear of speaking with the boss is an indication that you should march into his office and ask for a moment of his time. Fear of requesting the client’s business means that you must ask for the business—and then keep asking.

The 10X Rule compels you to separate yourself from everyone else in the market. And you do that by—as I emphasized earlier—doing what others refuse to do. Only in this way will you distinguish yourself and dominate your sector. Everyone experiences fear on some level, and because the marketplace is composed of people interacting with both products and one another, the market will face fear in the same way that you and your peers do. But rather than seeing fear as a sign to run—as most other people in the market will do—it must become your indicator to go.

I handle this dilemma myself by omitting time from the equation—since time is what drives fear. The more time you

devote to the object of your apprehension, the stronger it becomes. So starve the fear of its favorite food by removing time from its menu. For example, let’s say that John needs to make a call to a client, a task that immediately causes him to feel anxiety. So rather than picking up the phone and making the call immediately, he gets a cup of coffee and thinks about what he is going to do. His lengthy contemplation only causes his fear to grow, as he imagines all the ways the call could go badly and all the potentially terrible things that could happen. If con- fronted, he’s likely to claim that he needs to “prepare” before he makes the call. But preparation is merely an excuse for those who haven’t trained properly—and who use it as a reason to justify their last-minute reluctance. John needs to take a deep breath, pick up the phone, and just make tfte call. Last-minute preparation is just another way to feed the fear that will only get stronger as time is added. Nothing happens without action. Fear doesn’t just tell you wftat to do; it also tells you when to do it. Ask yourself what time it is at any point in the day, and the answer is always the same: now. The time is always now—and when you experience fear, it’s a sign that the best time to take action is at that very moment. Most people will not follow through with their goals when enough time has passed from the inception of their idea to actually doing something about it; however, if you remove time from your process, you’ll be ready to go. There’s simply no other choice than to act. There’s no need to prepare. It’s too late for

that once you’ve gotten this far.

Now, the only thing that will make a difference is action. Everyone has had the experience of failing to do something they wanted to do. Perhaps by the time you got yourself “ready” to do something, someone else had taken action— and now you’re regretting it. Failure comes in many forms; it occurs whether you act or not. Regardless of the outcome, I would say that it’s far preferable to fail while doing something than to fail by over-preparing while someone else walks up and scoops up your dreams.

This scenario occurs in business every day. People give their fears much more time than they deserve. They wait to make the personal visit or phone call, write the e-mail, or present their proposal because they’re afraid of the outcome. Countless individuals share the same excuses for why it is “not a good time” to take action. The client is leaving town. The client just got back into town. It’s the end of the month or the beginning of the month. The clients have been in meetings all day. They are about to go into meetings. They just bought something. They don’t have the budgets. They are cutting back. Business is bad. There’s been a change in management or staff. I don’t want to “bug” them. They never return my phone calls anyway. No one else can sell them. They are unrealistic. I don’t know what to say. I am not ready yet. I just called them yesterday . . . and on and on.

All the excuses in the world won’t change one simple fact: that fear is a sign to do whatever it is you fear—and do it quickly. My wife tells me all the time that I “seem fearless.” The truth is actually quite the contrary; I am scared most of the time. However, I refuse to feed my fear with time and allow it to get stronger. I opt instead to get things done quickly. I’ve learned that it’s simply better for me to take this approach. You will experience the same when you’re finally able to take the plunge and do what you fear. In fact, you’ll be amazed at how much stronger you become and how much more confident you are to do new things.

Taking massive action quickly and repeatedly will ensure that you appear fearless in the marketplace. The person who takes action on whatever he or she fears the most will be the person who advances his or her cause the most. Let the rest of the marketplace submit to anxiety and prepare unnecessarily for False Events Appearing Real. You’ve got a job to do.

Fear is one of the most disabling emotions a human being can experience. It immobilizes people, and often, it ultimately prevents them from going for their goals and dreams. Everyone fears something in life; however, it’s

what we each do with that fear that distinguishes us from others. When you allow fear to set you back, you lose energy, momentum, and confidence—and your fears will only grow.

Have you ever watched some kind of performer “eat fire”? It appears that the trick here is to completely exhaust the oxygen that the fire requires for life. Pull away too early, and oxygen refuels the fire—which will then, of course, burn you. The same is true with fear. If you back off from it even the slightest bit, you give it the oxygen it needs to stay alive. So commit yourself entirely, remove time from the equation— and you will snuff out your fears and be able to take more action.

Eat your fears; don’t feed them by backing off or giving them time to grow. Learn to look for and use fear so that you know exactly what you need to do to overcome it and advance your life. Every successful person I know of has used fear as an indicator to determine which actions will provide the greatest return. I use it in my own life, every chance I get, to remain aware that I am growing and expanding myself. If you aren’t experiencing fear, you are not taking new actions and grow- ing. It’s as simple as that. It does not take money or luck to create a great life; it requires the ability to move past your fears with speed and power. Fear, like fire, is not something from which you should pull away. Rather, it should be used to fuel the actions of your life.

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Date: 2016-04-22; view: 621