Getting the fear runaround


Last week, I freaked out.

What I wanted for my business wasn't happening fast enough. I didn't know if I could make it. Was it time to cry uncle?

I could barely breathe.

Then like clockwork, all my plans and activities from before the freakout started producing results.

Speaking engagements, and new clients popped up seemingly out of nowhere. (Though you and I both know better; I made them happen.)

And then?

Another freakout. This time:

Oh crap. It's happening so fast!

As if it was safer not to be successful and always be working toward it.

It is safer.

When you admit what you want, and take steps to make it happen, you are stepping out of your comfort zone. The safe place where you've been before, even if you didn't like it.

What's really happening is that the part of you that craves stability, the familiar, goes into overdrive.

Take me back to what I know! It's not safe here in the new and unknown.

If you can step back for a moment, you may see that fear, or a general freakout, is actually a very good sign.

It means you're on the right track. Moving toward what you really want, which is better than what you've had before. It's also completely new.

Work you love, fulfilling relationships, a rich and happy life.

It's a sign and also a challenge. On the other side of this scary patch is green grass.

Can you stick with it long enough to get there?

Back to me. I was first upset that things weren't happening, then upset that they were. Fear had me coming and going.

What did I do? Laugh.

I could see what was happening, that I was scared of getting what I wanted. Which, in turn, meant I was on my way to getting what I wanted. Follow that?

After laughing at the hilarity of fear convincing me that not-getting and getting what I wanted were equally perilous and frightening, I took myself for walk.

Got some air, had a candy bar and came back to my desk to keep moving forward.

That's all it takes sometimes.

  1. See what's really happening.
  2. Decide what you want to engage with.
  3. Take care of yourself.
  4. Keep going.

 What feels scary right now? How is it a sign that what you really want is on the way?