Fearlessness, decoding fear & JFDI anyway

Fear is normal - staying stuck isn't.

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This week I listened to 2 great podcasts about decoding fear and fearlessness.

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Moving forward from fear

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The first was Trinny Goodall's podcast "Fearless" with Jo Malone.

In the series, she speaks to a variety of guests about their most fearful and fearless moments, and what shaped them.

In Jo's episode - she spoke about developing the most crushing anxiety and fear after selling her business.? She explains that she has functioned most of her life on adrenaline and had got to a moment when the future of "what next?" seemed unsure.? The moment of clarity for her came when sitting on a Dubai beach and watching people sky diving out of a plane.? At that precise moment, she turned to her husband and said "I think we should move her and tomorrow morning, that will be us jumping out of a plane".? At that point she was in her mid 60s and she describes this as the moment when the fear left and everything felt clear.

Now you don't have to do anything so dramatic as jumping out of a plane (unless you want to, of course!).? But it does open up an interesting discussion about "jump starting" action after feeling fearful.

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The power of decoding fear

The second podcast episode I listened to on this topic was Michelle Obama's episode of The Light about "Decoding fear" recorded with Ellen Degeneres.

Michelle talks about how we need to learn to decode fear in 2 categories:

• The fear that keeps us SAFE
• And the fear that keeps us SMALL

And how staying in the zone of the second one can lead to a small life that keeps shrinking.? Ever noticed how fear of one thing can expand into fear of another, and so on and so on.? Which fears are keeping you small in your business?

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I know a bit about fear...

?I vividly remember one point in my life when I felt so fearful that it severely reduced me a "small and shrinking life" for a period.?

I was in my mid twenties.? I'd just escaped an unhealthy relationship and also stepped out of a high pressure job in investment banking.? My mental health had taken a bashing and my confidence too.? I remember looking out of my bedroom window at fireworks on my 25th birthday and feeling like life was passing me by.

The fear of that full stop hit me hard. It escalated to the point where I was so anxious and fearful that I found busy supermarkets and shops just too overwhelming - so much so that I'd have to ditch what I was doing and leave.? Text messages would send me into a panic. I turned down invites with my friends because I'd panic about going.?

But you know what.? Rather than feeling good about removing myself from those "fearful" events... I felt like a failure.? I'd get an initial few minutes of relief, but this would invariably lead into me feeling awful that I'd let myself down and "should" be able to do these things.

And so I started to put a plan of action together to build up my confidence and expand my comfort zone to break free from the fear.

This started small with going into shops on my own and buying one small thing, to accepting an invite to have coffee with one friend at their house, before working up to meeting one friend out, to a group of friends in a busier location.

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I recognised that these small steps built momentum.

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Now that seems like a long time ago, but I remember it vividly.?

And when I work with a client who is feeling cripplingly fearful about the next steps, it helps that I can recognise the whole range of emotions.? Working together with someone in a safe space to talk through and recognise what the underlying source of the fear is (and often in business I see fear of being judged and fear of failure, when you dig deeply) is so powerful.?

It's honestly one of the greatest gifts to help you and my other clients through this.

How is fear holding you back from a bigger life / bigger business?

Who am I?

I'm Liz Hamlet - London based Certified Business strategist, speaker & author.

I help my founder, CEO and corporate clients with their BIG PICTURE (& the RIGHT STRATEGY for them) for more impact, growth and revenue.

Join other ambitious founders using my framework The Growth Uplevel to take action and move past the fear with their business next growth steps.

I host monthly audio events with up to 2700 people registered per event on how to find networking opportunities that work for you.

Head over to my profile and hit the bell ?? for more on this topic.