Feb 17, 2021
All of us have challenges and fears in our life that we are
faced with from time to time. Sometimes these fears are minor and
sometimes they can become extremely debilitating. Either way, we
only truly grow and succeed when we face our fears. Most
of us have heard the phrase:
True Success and Growth is created outside your comfort
zone.
I love this statement because it reminds me to focus on
the opportunities that are presented to me whenever
a challenge or fear is put in my path. I have
experienced time and time again the success and fulfillment that
has come into my life by facing my fears and “leaning into
what I fear most”.
There has never been a better time to learn and act on this
principle than now. Our business, social, and economic environment
is placing many fears in our path and I believe we can use this as
an opportunity to Learn more about Ourselves, Grow our Success, and
Create an Amazing Life of Fulfillment and Prosperity. But it will
require some Bold, Courageous, and Intentional Actions on our part.
I hope this message might inspire you to do just that…
The Time I Walked Away from $250k.
There have been many times that I have had to face my fears in
difficult situations and life events. However, I can think of one
in particular that really pushed me to a new
level.
I was twenty-nine years old and had built a successful sales
team for a leading online stock education company. I was
doing very well financially and had built a team consistently
generating me over $250k per year. More importantly, I
was married and had 5 kids at the time.
I had built a relationship with an individual that owned a
small events company doing about $20M per year in revenue with
about 20 employees. This individual had presented me with the
opportunity to walk away from my “cush” “job” and become the CEO of
his company. I’m not sure what he saw in me, and I
certainly did not feel qualified for the position. But,
I was faced with the challenge or opportunity to walk away from an
already built $250k per year to earn a commission (only on profit)
of helping him to grow his company.
I saw the potential, but it was a thought that literally
terrified me. I had worked very hard to create the level
of success I had created (from the ground up) and knew that it
would require some serious “heavy lifting” to jump ship and
move to the next level with this offer. I spent many
long, stressful, and thoughtful days considering the offer.
I knew that I wanted to go to the next
level. The opportunity appeared to be sound but I would
give up a solid (bird in the hand) income for an upside that was
not guaranteed in any way. To say I was scared to make
the move would be an understatement. But ultimately, I
chose to make the move and I have never looked
back. In hindsight, that move is what gave me an
incredible amount of experience, success, relationships,
and life skills. It was a bumpy ride (which we can
cover at another time), but we were able to grow the company to
over $200M in net collected revenue with over 300 employees in
5 short years. This was a perfect example of leaning
into my Fear in order to Grow and Create Success.
What do you Fear Most?
The question I have for you is, “What is it that you fear
right now in your professional life?” Is there an
opportunity that you have been considering or presented
with? Is there a skill that you have put off learning or
developing? Is there a personal passion that you have wanted to
start building a business around? Are there investing
opportunities that you don’t feel qualified to start learning and
doing? Maybe you have some current challenges or
problems in your life or business that you simply don’t feel
qualified to deal with. Maybe you have a relationship or a family
matter that you can’t seem to get up the courage to start working
on. Regardless of what the fear is that is present in your life, I
can promise you that your “Greatest Accomplishments”…Your Best
Life…is waiting just beyond that challenge or fear.
See, I believe that your Fear is there for a reason that will
benefit you. Maybe it’s your gut telling you that you
need to address it. Maybe it’s your subconscious mind identifying
to you an area that you can learn and grow from. Don’t get me
wrong, I believe that fears can be real (in life and especially in
our minds), but I also believe most FEAR is something we create to
avoid problems in our lives…simply put it is “false events
appearing real.” Maybe another way to look at FEAR is to
see it as an opportunity, or a Highlighted area for Growth rather
than a red flag to run away from.
Either way, you were meant to do great things and can only
accomplish your best life by addressing the road blocks holding you
back from Greatness.
Why Should you START with Fear?
What can we hope to gain from facing our fears and How do we
actually start Crushing those fears?…
Here are just a few (of many) reasons to Face Your
Fears:
-
Gateway to Results- facing your fears can give you valuable
experience that you can use to grow, build, and learn strategies
to execute at a higher level in the future. Remember that even
failure carries with it knowledge that will improve your
skills moving forward.
-
Personal Growth- the fastest way to grow is to stretch
yourself. This will most certainly happen when you face
your fears. You learn new ways to accomplish your
goals, and you are forced to adapt to a new environment.
-
Increased Fulfillment- personal growth is one of
the most important ways to feel a greater amount of
fulfillment and passion in your
life. Truly living only happens when we are
growing personally and professionally. Facing your fears
is an amazing way to do this.
-
Build Confidence & Belief- As we face our fears, we build
confidence and belief in our own abilities to handle life and
the amount of uncertainty we have in life. The
experience that comes from dealing with fear creates new beliefs
that we can handle any situation in life, and this will create more
confidence in our ability to stop dealing with even greater
challenges in the future.
I can go on and on about the positive benefits that come
with facing your fears. I also know that there
can be difficult, emotional, and negative experiences that come
with facing our fears. Rejection, Failure, and Setbacks
can also come with facing your fears, but remember this…
Anything that you can Learn from a Situation can be turned
into a Positive if you will just Make the Decision that it will
help you Grow and do better in the Future.
How to Start Crushing Your Fear?
Let’s talk about how you can start Crushing Your
Fears and some ideas I have for helping you Take Action…
I’ve learned all kinds of ways to deal with
fear, challenges and struggles in my life. I wrote
down a few of the Empowering Thoughts, Techniques, and Disciplines
that I have learned and used over the years, and here are
a few of the best ideas I can give you:
-
Say Yes, then Figure it Out- Most every 7-Figure mentor
that I know has adopted the idea that they will act on
opportunity and figure it out along the way. You don’t
need to know everything to take action.
-
Good is Good Enough- Taking action on your dreams,
desires and opportunities is good enough. Don’t wait for
confidence to tackle your fears. Confidence comes
after you push through your fears.
-
Focus Your Energy- When you are leaning into fear, you
must create space to focus your time, energy, and talent so you can
develop the skills needed to handle the challenge. Don’t
multitask when facing your fears.
-
Surrounding yourself with Positive- Facing fears can be scary,
but you can build up your confidence, belief, and abilities by
surrounding yourself with others that have already
faced similar fears. They can help you benefit from
belief transference, positive influence, and support along the
way.
-
Eliminate Distractions- The best way to deal with your
fears is to block out some time and hit them head on. Don’t allow
distractions, easy ways out, and others to distract you from your
objective and focus on conquering your fears.
-
Do Less Not More- The key to handling your fears is not to
take everything on all at once. Don’t feel you need
to do it all. Just simply take the first
step. Most times, the answers, details, and
solutions come along the way. The path to dealing with
your fears will most of the time reveal the solutions you are
looking for along the way.
Ultimately, there is no magic pill or easy way to get through
facing your fears. You are the only one equipped to handle
your fears. You are the only that can face
them. But, if you will remember and adopt the idea
that “Everything happens for a reason and that reason is
there to Benefit me”, then your perspective will drive your
experience. True or not, that will empower you to create
an experience of growth and learning rather than failure,
disappointment, and struggle.
WARNING: Don’t Let This Happen!
I have a thought that came to me, and it is a simple (but
serious) word of caution or warning. Sometimes we fail to recognize
that the opportunity or situation “already present in our life” is
what we fear dealing with the most. As a result, we (as
entrepreneurs, investors, or just humans) use new opportunities as
excuses to “Not deal with Fear we currently have”. Let
me give you an example. So many times I have seen
entrepreneurs or individuals chase shiny objects (new
opportunities) in order to find a “way out” of working hard and
dealing with the struggles they may be currently facing. You cannot
move from opportunity to opportunity thinking you are “operating
outside your comfort zone” or facing new challenges, when you are
truthful just avoiding finding solutions to your current
situation. Learn to face your fears regardless of where
they are present in your life.
You Can Do It!!
I know we all have greatness inside of us. I know
that we are given challenges for a reason and that reason is to
grow and develop the best versions of
ourselves. This is not a destination driven
objective. It is a path based journey. We learn, grow,
and develop along the way for our entire lives. When you fall in
love with the process…the path…then you release your need for the
end result. When you stop fixating on the end
result, you can start to really enjoy the process
more.
You are on a path that rewards the person willing to Lean into
their Fears with the Benefit of Prosperity, Personal Growth, and
Happiness. By avoiding your fears you are left with
disappointment, regret, and failure. After all, you will
miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. You will Benefit from 100%
of the shots you take (regardless of scoring points) if you Learn
something from every shot.
Wayne Dyer said that as we all look back on the Tapestry of
our Lives we will gain a better perspective and the Meaning and
Purpose of our Challenges become more clear. It is my hope that
when you look back on your life, you are Happy and Confident that
you Leaned into your Fear…that you took the risks…that you embraced
change…that you learned to love the process of Growth. I
am working on that every day, and I believe you can
too. You can do it. You have the abilities to
handle anything if you will simply put your mind, effort, and
resolve to doing it. What the mind can conceive and believe it CAN
achieve. So, Start Creating Your Best Life Today.