How to Master Your Fear

At COD, we’ve probably turned more coaches into millionaires than any other program out there. The one thing they all had in common is that they were utterly terrified.

So was I, when I started.

Afraid of failing. Afraid of succeeding. Afraid what other people would say. Worried about “impostor syndrome.” Worried about spending money on ads and getting nothing back.

When you’re operating so far outside of your comfort zone, fear is your constant companion.

But the truth is that fear can be your biggest ally if you know how to manage it. I have to master my fear literally every day to run my company and get results for my clients.

Here’s the best way to do it:

DEFINE THE NIGHTMARE AND THE DREAM

Fear has the most power when it’s vague. It’s this creeping feeling of dread that makes us freeze. Mythology recognizes this. It’s why medusa turns people to stone.

And in Jaws, they barely show the shark. It’s this menacing, stalking THING you can’t see until it’s too late. The misty, amorphous threat in your imagination is always scarier than the real thing.

Because of this, when we shine a light on what we fear, it loses it’s power. So the first thing to do is to?define the nightmare:

?What is the absolute worst-case scenario, the worst thing that can happen??Write it down and define it in as much detail as possible.

?What’s your contingency plan??If this did happen, what could you do to recover and get things back on track?

?How likely is the worst-case scenario??What precautions can you take right now to make the worst-case scenario less likely to happen, and less severe if it does?

Just getting clear on these 3 things makes the fear begin to evaporate. Usually when you define the worst-case scenario, it’s not as bad you thought. And once it’s defined, now you can take intelligent steps to mitigate it. Make sense?

Once that’s done, define the dream:

?What’s the best-case scenario??What happens if I win big? Again, define it in as much detail as you can.

?How likely is it??Is it more or less likely than the bad scenario?

This is the process I went through when I made the scariest and ultimately BEST decision of my life: to quit my bartending job and go all-in on building an online business.

At the time, I had been bartending in LA for 10 years, trying to make it as an actor. To put it mildly, it wasn’t working out.

I remember celebrating my 30th birthday in Vegas…sitting in the lobby of the Palazzo hotel, and literally sobbing into my drink because my life was so far from what I wanted.

When I got back, I started dabbling into making money online. I didn’t have much time to work on it, but after I while I got to the point where I was having some small success. Specifically, I was making about $500 a month.

Since I lived in LA, my rent was somewhere around $2200 a month, so it wasn’t anywhere near enough to pay my expenses. But I had this feeling that if I could get out from behind the bar and go full-time into making money online, I could at least replace my income from bartending. It wouldn’t be much, money-wise, but I finally would be FREE.

Of course, I was petrified to do this, so I went through the process:

?What’s the absolute worst-case scenario??Not being able to make rent. Getting kicked out of my apartment. My Dad telling me what an idiot I am. Being dead broke.

?What’s the contingency plan??If it doesn’t work out, I could probably take out some credit cards to keep me afloat. I could try to borrow some money from my folks. And it might take a while, but I could always just get another bartending job. If necessary, I could move to a cheaper place.

?How likely is the worst-case scenario??This was a tough one. I had this feeling that everything would be okay, but in the end, I gave myself 50/50 odds.

Then I flipped the script…

?What’s the best-case scenario??At the time, I had no concept that this decision would make me a multi-millionaire. The best I could envision was that I would be able to make $100 a day online, and never have to bartend again. For me, that was enough.

?How likely is it??Again, I said about 50/50. In hindsight, this may have been overly optimistic.

This process took my vague, paralyizing fear and shined a light on it. Now, I could look at things more-or-less objectively:

?Outcome A -?Success. 50% chance. Life changes forever.

?Outcome B -?Failure. 50% chance. Have to borrow money and get another bartending gig. Actually, that’s not so bad.

Essentially, I made the decision like a smart gambler: what are my odds of winning, what’s the payout if I win, and what’s the loss if I lose?

If you’re in a situation where your odds of winning are even, but a win is life-changing and a loss isn’t so bad, you should absolutely take that bet.

Thank God I did.

When I quit that job, I was terrified. But something else amazing happened too:

I felt ALIVE. For the first time in forever.

I was no longer some kid working a job I hated, waiting for my boss to eventually fire me.

I was the captain of my fate. If I succeeded or failed, it was up to me. And I will never forget the surge of power and energy I felt when I woke up the next morning and got to work.

It was like entire centers of my brain suddenly switched on. I’m not kidding. I went from being Wall-E to being the Terminator overnight.

That first year on my own, I made $250,000. Changed my life forever. I took my wife to Italy and the Caribbean. We could go anywhere, and do anything.

And of course today, I’ve helped thousands of clients do the same thing and far more, and I’ve scaled that tiny business to over $80 million in revenue as of today.

So don’t let fear paralyze you. Don’t let it turn you to stone. Shine a light on it, get clear about the best-case and worst-case scenarios. Come up with a contingency plan and make the best decision, and move forward.

This is your life. It’s not a dress rehearsal. It’s the real thing.

And if we can help you overcome your fear and get your business moving, book a call:?clientsondemand.com/talk .??