Misguided Fear

Your Fears

When I announced I was leaving my corporate job to start a company, the most common reaction from fellow co-workers was, “I am so excited for you. I could never do what you’re doing.”  

I asked them why they wouldn’t “make the leap” and their answers were not surprising and uncovered common fears most of us have about leaving the known and venturing into the unknown:

What my then colleagues didn’t understand is that I shared those same fears and still do.  They come and go in intensity and frequency, however even the most successful people I’ve worked with admit to them all.

Inverting Your Fears

Fear isn’t your enemy.  Misplaced fear is your enemy.  You fear the wrong things.

Remember my coworkers said they were excited for me. Of course they were. I was excited too. New ideas, possibilities, and big dreams are exciting and can be fuel for creating the life you want.

Unfortunately, big dreams also amplify fears. In your mind the dream exists in all its glory. You believe early missteps will destroy it. The truth is, your big hairy audacious dream will change as it’s realized. What your dreams ultimately become and how you make them happen can vary widely from first assumptions.

So how do you harness energy from possibility while using fear to fuel your progress instead of stalling it? 

Fear the right things by inverting your existing fears.  Here’s how to flip each fear on its head.

The Right Fears

Stagnation

Be terrified of losing momentum, the most common killer of dreams.

Regret

Fear regret. The most common regret of the dying is lack of courage.

Decay

Fear not growing and understand most growth in life comes from failure.

Fragility

Do not fear taking risks because staying where you are can be risky. Understand the risks you're taking today and how this journey can make you resilient.

Squander

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.  The second best time is now.  The future is not guaranteed.

The Heart of a Lion Tracker

The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life is the true story of Boyd Vartey’s upbringing amongst the great lion tracking guides of Africa. 

Boyd’s lion trackers had a saying, "I don’t know where I’m going but I know exactly how to get there".

Like making the leap toward your dreams, the lion trackers begin their day not knowing where the lion is or where to begin looking.  Nor are they worried about the day's track being a failure.  Many days result in no lion sightings. 

Instead, they begin walking and notice the way brush is disturbed, the direction of the wind or the presence or absence of certain wildlife. These environmental clues might suggest a slight or drastic change in course.

Successful steps increase the chance of seeing the lion today.  Mistakes and lessons learned increase the chance they’ll see a lion tomorrow.  

The best lion trackers have perfected the art of observing then adjusting course.  None of it happens, however, without getting started.  Stepping into the bush is required.

What the lion trackers have understood for generations is now promoted by elite coaches, self help gurus and the like. The lion trackers understand the importance of focusing on:

• Action instead of over-planning

• Feedback instead of theory

• Process instead of the goal

• Present instead of the future

• Navigation instead of the path

Behaving like a lion tracker is the essence of fear inversion.

The Next Step

Which of the misguided fears are preventing you from starting or delaying your progress?

To overcome them you must identify, invert and take action.

To assist you, I created a Fear Inversion guide to help you through the process.

You can find the worksheet style template here.

If you prefer a more guided approach, free subscribers can access Leap AI. Leap AI is an AI agent that will guide you through the Fear Inversion framework.

Benefits

There are two benefits to this exercise:

• Tangible Actions - you will uncover tangible next steps to take toward your goal and start building momentum

• Weakens Fear - perhaps the greatest benefit is the mental shift that occurs during the process. Previous fears are challenged and weakened while you begin to build mental frames to avoid similar fears in the future.

My goal with The Leap is to provide you each Saturday with the knowledge, tools and lessons learned to help you get started and keep going toward building your future. 

Whether you are making the leap to startups, solo-entrepreneurship, freelancing, side hustles or other creative ventures, the tools and strategies to succeed in each are similar.