facing fear
Success Tweet 47
Jun 22nd
I’m still writing about the ideas in my new career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I have a little less than 100 more blog posts to go to further explain each of the tweets in Success Tweets. When I’m finished, you’ll have an in depth discussion on each of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets. You can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com. Hard copies of the book are available on Amazon.com and your local bookstore.
Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 47…
Act. Feel the fear and do it anyways. That the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.
I subscribe to Sharon Melnick’s online newsletter. In a recent post, she made several interesting points about confidence.
Confidence will help you be flexible. You will consider all alternatives and options.
Confidence will help you follow through on ideas that you might otherwise talk yourself out of.
Confidence will help you be persistent – and hold on you your vision for your life.
She’s right. Confidence is the foundation of all success. Without it, you will have a difficult time creating the life and career success you want and deserve. To build your self confidence, you have to be optimistic, face your fears and act, and surround yourself with positive people.
Fear is a confidence and career success killer. Elbert Hubbard, the author of “A Message to Garcia” (http://budbilanich.com/garcia) one of the best essays on personal responsibility ever written, has some great things to say about facing your fears.
“The greatest mistake you can make is continually fearing that you will make one.”
Read that again. Those 14 words are powerful! They are some fundamental career advice.
If you let your fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action, you will never take any action. Your fear will ruin and any chance of creating the career success you want and deserve.
In 1988 I was ready to start my career success coach and speaking business. I was afraid. I was worried that I wouldn’t succeed. I had always worked for large companies. I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what to do to run a successful career success coach business.
Nevertheless, I looked my fear in the eye, quit my job and moved forward. 22 years later, I’m still at it. My fears were unfounded – but at the time, they were real and could have held me back. I’m glad I faced them and acted.
Fear is persistent. It doesn’t go away. It will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike. If you let it get the best of you, you’ll never move forward nor create the life and career success you want and deserve.
Fear often manifests itself in procrastination. When I find myself procrastinating, I always ask myself, “What are you afraid of here, Bud?” Identifying what I fear always help me defeat it. Once I identify what I am afraid of, I can take positive steps to move forward — to get past my fear and on to career success.
Make a list of your doubts and fears. Decide what you can do to overcome them. Then act. Take at least one positive action – no matter how small — every day to overcome your doubts and fears. Even if these actions don’t work out as well as you hope, you will be on the road to overcoming your fears and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.
Remember – procrastination feeds fear; action cures it. The choice is up to you. I choose action. My best career advice says you should too.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are self confident. Self confident people don’t let their fears get in the way of their success. They follow the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets. “Act. Feel the fear and do it anyway. That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.” Identify your fears, and then do what you need to do to move past them. Action is the great antidote to fear. It puts inertia on your side. Once you are moving forward, you are likely to continue moving forward. It’s the first step that is the hardest – and scariest. If you want to beat your fears, you need to take the first step — act, and then keep on going.
That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets; and on fear and self confidence. What’s yours? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts. Also, please share your personal stories of triumph over fear. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
Success Tweet 46
Jun 21st
I’m participating in the Self Help Gifts Giveaway. You can find some great free life and career success gifts there. Check it out www.selfhelpgiftsgiveaway.com.
Meanwhile, I’m still writing about the ideas in my new career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less. I have about 100 more blog posts to go. When I’m finished, you’ll have an in depth discussion on each of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets. You can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com. Hard copies of the book are available on Amazon.com and your local bookstore.
Today’s career success post is on Tweet 46…
Four steps for dealing with fear that can sabotage your success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.
Fear is normal. Fear is common. Fear is human. However, fear is a career success killer. We’re all afraid sometime. Successful people face their fears and act. I’ve learned a few things about fear over the years. Here is my best career advice on dealing with fear.
Fear breeds indifference. Indifference breeds self doubt and worry. Often, it’s easier to go with the flow and do nothing than attempt to do something of which you’re afraid. When you say to yourself “It’s OK, it doesn’t really matter anyway,” ask the next question – “What am I afraid of here?” Identifying your fear is the first step in dealing with it.
Self doubt is a form of negative self talk. Our words can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Positive self talk leads to life and career success. Negative self talk leads to fear and failure. If you catch yourself saying things like “I can’t do this; I’ll never be successful; I’ll never get out of this mess,” then you never will. If you say things like “I can do this; I have what it takes to become a career success; I can solve this problem,” then you will.
Worry and excessive caution will paralyze you. Some people spend so much time worrying about the bad things that could or might happen that they never take action and actually do something to prove that good things happen too. Worrying too much can bring you and your life and march toward career success to a screeching halt.
A boat that never leaves the harbor is pretty safe. However, it is not doing what it is meant to be doing. The same is true for people. If you never take a risk, you’ll never know what you are capable of accomplishing.
Here are my career success coach tips for doing battle with your fears.
1) Identify what you fear. Figure out why you’re afraid. Is it fear of failure? Is it fear of making the wrong decision? Is it fear of a lost opportunity? Are you afraid that you aren’t up to task? Once you identify the reason behind your fear, you are well on the way to overcoming it.
2) Admit what you fear. It’s OK to be afraid. You wouldn’t be human if you were never afraid. A common definition of courage is the ability to feel fear and still do what you need to do regardless. In 1988, I faced a very frightening decision. Should I stay in a comfortable but ultimately unsatisfying job with a large corporation, or should I start a career success coach business? I was afraid of failing. Failing meant that I would lose my savings and have to start over again, looking for a job in another corporation. However, once I identified and admitted my fear, I was able to take the next step – acceptance.
3) Accept what you fear. Accepting your fears is important, because it shows that you know you’re human. Once I accepted that I was afraid of failing, I was able to start my business and succeed. In fact, I embraced my fear of failure. It made me work harder; it pushed me to work the long hours and learn the entrepreneurship lessons necessary to be successful as a self employed career success coach, consultant and speaker.
4) Take action. Action cures fear. It is the most important of these four steps. Do something! The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll find it was the wrong thing to do – and you will have eliminated at least one thing from your list of possible actions.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people follow the career advice in Tweet 46 in Success Tweets. “Four steps for dealing with fear that can sabotage your success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.” This is very important career advice. Action is the antidote to fear. In most cases, you’ll make good decisions and your fears won’t be realized. In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined. Successful people learn from their failures. By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts. You win if you make a good decision and things work out. You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.
That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 46 in Success Tweets. What’s yours? Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
