What Has Fear Taken from You?
The other day I was having coffee with a local business owner named Bryan.
He started his own company about six months ago and I asked him what the process had been like for him and his family.
Photo credit: Frodrig / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
Bryan said his wife was scared, that she feared the worst and the transition was hard for her.
But for Bryan, all he could think about was the life changing opportunity in front of him. If he started his own company, and was successful, his family's future could be drastically improved.
Often times we get fixated on the temporary (and less likely downside) and ignore the much more likely and long-term upside if we're successful.
We tell ourselves no before we even get a chance to say yes.
Why do we do that?
Why do we doubt our abilities to the point where we can barely see beyond our past failures?
I think part of it stems from the belief that others have tried and failed, and that they must have known something that we didn’t, and yet they still were unsuccessful. In actuality, very few of us know anything more than most others until we try, and even in failure there are lessons.
Ryan, great insight! I often mistakenly believe others are better than me, have more talent, knowledge, or luck than me and so I end up not doing anything.
Thank you for reading and adding such a valuable comment! Do you have an example of when you faced your fears? I’d love to hear it!
I’m working on facing my fears more these days, but the biggest fear I’ve had in the past has been change. I haven’t been open to changes as much as I should have been, and that has stunted my growth. Change in location, change in jobs, change in life really. But I’m working on it.
I think part of it stems from the belief that others have tried and failed, and that they must have known something that we didn’t, and yet they still were unsuccessful. In actuality, very few of us know anything more than most others until we try, and even in failure there are lessons.
Ryan, great insight! I often mistakenly believe others are better than me, have more talent, knowledge, or luck than me and so I end up not doing anything.
Thank you for reading and adding such a valuable comment! Do you have an example of when you faced your fears? I’d love to hear it!
I’m working on facing my fears more these days, but the biggest fear I’ve had in the past has been change. I haven’t been open to changes as much as I should have been, and that has stunted my growth. Change in location, change in jobs, change in life really. But I’m working on it.