Fear is Your Friend

With all the “think positive” advice out there, what’s a person to do with their fear, anxiety, worry and other “negative” emotions? Block them? Stomp them out?

I have found it useful for myself and my coaching clients to think of fear as a friend. All of our behaviors, beliefs and feelings have a positive intention behind them. Constricting feelings like fear and anxiety exist to keep us safe from something, like failure, embarrassment or pain. They broadcast loudly to get our attention. (Robert Dilts, an outstanding thought-leader in NLP, provides excellent detail on the concept of positive intention.)

What I do with constricting emotions like fear, worry and anxiety makes all the difference. If I let them hobble me and stop my progress, then I’ve missed their gift. If I stop and listen carefully to those emotions, there’s always a useful message about what I want and need to feel balanced and take the next steps along my path.

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Why You Need a Mini Retreat, and 5 Ways to Take One Today

Everyone loves a vacation. But when you’re in career crunch-time, whether you’re a business owner or an employee, it can be difficult to set aside the time, money, and energy needed for a real respite from the daily grind.

We all have times in life when we get overloaded with work and feel overwhelmed and exhausted. I tend to be in ‘driver’ mode most of the time, so my inclination is to put my head down and try to push through it. Instead of taking a break, I’ve asked myself – why not work a little harder for a little longer and get everything done so I can take a real vacation? Have you ever said this to yourself?
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Discover What Motivates You to Get Things Done!

What’s the secret to getting yourself into action, even when you feel resistant? We all have important tasks we dread doing but somehow manage to get done (eventually), like doing the dishes or keeping up with financial paperwork. When you start exploring what comes next in your career, you’ll likely find some of the tasks required along the way difficult to get done.

What if you knew the key to quickly getting yourself out of resistance and into action? Think of the energy and time you could save yourself if you removed dread and resistance, and just went straight to the satisfaction and relief of getting it done!

There are lots of common reasons for feeling resistant now and then to taking action. You may feel the pinch of adding more activity to an already busy life. There may be actions required that you just don’t enjoy (like updating your resume). You may feel a bit nervous or uncertain about exploring something new. As you may have experienced by now, discovering the elements of what you really love doing through the Passion Discovery Worksheet and getting out to Talk it Up can happen very quickly. You can find opportunities worth exploring immediately.
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