April 23, 2015
Fear. Sure, it has a healthy place in our lives. Pretty much though, it sucks! It’s bad enough I have to worry about a cheetah eating me, but then I have to worry about sharknados too!
…Wait what?
The cost of fear
Not gonna happen. The fact is, only one of the above even has a one in a million chance, and for that you have to live by the coast!
So in the absence of real immediately life threatening situations in the modern day to evoke a fear response, our brains act a little peculiar. We get that gut-clenching, heart-racing, eye-pinpointing feeling over some pretty benign situations. Meanwhile, we drive around in accident-contraptions without a care in the world.
It’s a shame, because irrational fear responses limit us in some pretty big ways. They can turn off, or slow down our creativity. The run interference on our problem solving skills. They spike stress levels that impact our health. Perhaps most importantly though, they dissuade us from acting on many decisions -that, even if they end badly, have non-fatal risk, and at least partially reversible consequences- just because we misinterpret the feeling.
See, back when events like sharknados were more common, and could cover greater distances, (yeah, I’ve never even seen the movie, and have no idea what it is about) our fear instinct gave us quick clues about what to do to stay alive. There are still plenty of locations, situations, and professions it still does its job properly. However now, for most of us, it routinely seems to get bored, and look for other things to do. We feel fear over public speaking. We feel it over big financial, or career decisions. However, this time instead of giving us simple, but valuable information, our fear just hinders our ability to reason out the best decision.
Don’t temper your excitement
There are some really great strategies for getting this response under control. There’s analyzing the all potential consequences, and mitigating back. There’s Ben Fanning’s simple and insightful method for asking ourselves what is really at stake. We could try a new twist on an old classic, and envision the sharknado in its underpants. Ok, that one might not be so great.
However, equally as important as toning down our fear, is countering it. We need an alternative to fear. This is because we can make our fear as small and insignificant as possible, but there is still going to be a little left. Without something on the other scale to tip them, even that little fear can cause us to hesitate, and decide not to pursue our dreams. What we need is to remember, and focus on is what made us so excited about our choice to begin with.
Excitement about the future, about the potential of our decision, is what allows us to act in the affirmative. Excitement, and optimism balance out the fear so that we can put our reason back to work in deciding what will be best for us. What’s more, given that even with all the reason in the world we will never have perfect information to make our choices, excitement gives us the courage to go for it. It is what allows us to chase the dreams that fear, and even reason might caution against. It lets us thrive in a future which we can not predict.
I’m often tempted to temper my excitement over new opportunities- to turn the burner on low. I play it cool. I’m afraid I’ll just set myself up for a big let down. After all, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Well today I have a new strategy. Instead of playing it safe, ignoring our excitement, and listening to a dysfunctional sensation of fear, what if we give excitement the controls. Let’s let our ambition, and optimism take the lead, with fear whining its input from the corner, instead of the other way around. Let’s stop letting fear spiral through our ideas, ripping them apart, and convincing us they stink, like a sharknado full of dead tuna. (Again- no idea what it’s about.)
Excitement is our best tool to tip the scales of decision making from “too scared to act,” to “to excited not to!”
I say we go for it!
-Michael Speck
3 Comments
- Make Yourself Too-Big-to-Fail (hint: it's not about you) - Venture to Dream - […] My friend. You have to put yourself out there. You have to let people in. Put fear in it’s…
Ben Fanning
April 24, 2015
Thanks for sharing, Michael….definitely important to have an alternative to fear in your tool box!
Michael Speck
April 25, 2015
Absolutely!