In today’s video, I want to tell you a story about speaking in front of 7,000 people a few years ago. A young woman came up to me at the end of my talk and said to me, “I don’t know how you do it. How do you get over the fear and do that?”
I looked at her and I smiled and I said, “I don’t get over the fear. There is no such thing as getting over fear. Successful people have fear every day just like you do, just like everyone does.”
And it reminded me of a quote from Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art. The quote says…
“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.”
This really makes me think about the courage to be successful, as I share in today’s video:
Everybody feels fear. I certainly do, and you do, too. And often our fear is projected from an uncertainty about the future. But projected uncertainty doesn’t mean that the thing is going to happen. It’s just a projection.
When I’m presented with fear, I could choose to stop where I am and never know whether I could have accomplished that thing that I was afraid to try. But instead, I choose not to live my life crippled in fear.
I met a young woman this past weekend who said, “I’m afraid of failure and I’m afraid of success, too.” And so I said, “What happens? What do you do?”
She responded, “I just stay stuck. I stay where I am because at least the devil I know is better than the devil I don’t know.” I invited her to stretch a little bit outside of her comfort zone so that she can find out what she’s capable of doing in the world.
And now I’m asking you to look back on all the times that you stopped yourself from saying yes to an opportunity because of fear.
Imagine that the worst-case scenario would not have happened.
Imagine that each time you said no, the best-case scenario would have happened.
Where would you be in your life now?
What are the things that you’re not saying yes to right now because of fear?
And what if the projected worst-case scenario wasn’t going to happen?
Would you say yes, and if so, how would your life turn out in the end?
You don’t have to listen to fear.
With love,
Fabienne
