Fear is your guide

[buzzsprout episode=”32140″ player=”true”]

Fear is your guide to what, eh? The deepest recesses of your soul? Yikes! And… YES.

FEAR is your Saboteur’s weapon of choice… It’s

• how it controls you
• how it manipulates you into being paralyzed in the corner
• and… FEAR is just a feeling… that happens to point to your heart’s desire.

Fear shows up when you even think about doing something important.

No sooner do you say, “How I would Love to do/be/have that!” than you’re quick to follow with “but I’m petrified.” And that, as they say, is the end of that.

Who says you have to stop being afraid before you can make a move? Who lay that trap? You guessed it.

Consider the “Fear Pattern,” as I’m calling it. How many of you have a

• Fear of being “different” AND a Fear of being the “same”?
• Fear of the “unknown” AND a Fear of the “known”?
• Fear of “moving ahead” AND a Fear of “falling behind”?
• Fear of “failure” AND a Fear of “success”? Or how about a
• Fear of “commitment” AND a Fear of “being alone”?

Are you beginning to see the pattern here? All of these fears produce one result: paralysis. “Don’t move.” “Stay stuck.” “Just sit there, undecided, nursing your double-scotch, your box of chocolates, your joint… while the world passes you by…” 

Paralysis is the goal of the Saboteur… and for good reason! Consider that tiger in the tall grass waiting for your ancestor to make a wrong move. According to Seth Godin in his book Linchpin, our Saboteur is linked to our limbic system which, when in the presence of fear (aka adrenaline), causes us to revert to our most primal responses: lay low, don’t stick out, disappear… And the present day fear you experience when you think about pursuing your heart’s dream isn’t the same as being stalked by a Tiger! 

This is when “You” get to step in and shake yourself loose.

This is when you get to pause and say, “Interesting… I’m afraid. This must be something BIG. What do I want to do now?” In other words, you get to choose. Are you going to give in and submit to the fear again? OR are you going to acknowledge that it’s there (it’s never going to go away entirely) and get on with it?

Think on that for a moment… if the fear ever went away entirely, chances are you stopped doing something important. If you’re going to do important things for yourself, your family, your loved ones… the world… it’s likely you’re going to be afraid, to some degree, the entire time. So, what’s the message? Expect it to show up! Say “Hello Fear! Been a while… thanks for reminding me that this is important! I’m going to do “X” now.”

Free yourself from that trap, and move ahead…

Always infinite possibilities… always your choice.

Song Credit: “I’m Free” ©1990 the Soup Dragons