What you fear, might be your greatest love….

I was chatting to someone recently about fear. My companion was recommending taking time to list and analyse your fear. He stated his belief - that this was an extremely useful exercise to conduct. What struck me most was that he recommended doing this *rather* than listing your goals and aspirations. He stipulated that understanding what your fears are will make you more successful than knowing what your hopes are.

That’s not the normal approach is it? How does it make you feel?

It scared me.

It scared me because I know there are some fears that stalk me that I am not sure I want to confront. I mean, they’re my fears, right? They make me feel bad when I think about them. They make me run in the opposite direction and do the opposite actions or behaviours – stuff that will help me avoid having my fear become my reality. I think everyone is like this. I think this is part of the human condition.

You’d think that as a 30+ years coach of many thousands of clients, by now I would be fearless. Indeed, in many things, I am. There are some fears I have had along the path of my life that I have been forced to confront, the decision taken entirely out of my hands – the early sudden death of my younger brother, suffering a severe back injury that saw me having to relearn how to walk as an adult not once, but twice in my life, for instance. These fearful circumstances I faced with as much courage as I could, and I survived, as many others who have dealt with similar or even worse life-changing moments do.

No, the fears that stalk me are less of the ‘blind-side you on a dull Tuesday afternoon’ kind of happenings. They are the fears that have remained with me my whole life and which, should I gather sufficient courage to deal with will, I know, challenge me to radically change some key beliefs and values. I may have to become a completely different person. I may have to give up some things, stuff that I have come to be extremely comfortable with. Or I may have to come to terms with a future life that doesn’t have some of my dearest hopes and dreams within it. These are the fears that I think my friend was talking about – they are the ones that are radically transformational in a deeply personal space.

Yet, despite my initial response – of drawing back from the cliff edge hinted at by my cohort – I saw the truth of what he said. If we wish to become more wholehearted, more wholly ourselves, exhibiting greater influence over our behaviour and feeling more fulfilled within ourselves, we are well advised to spend time understanding our greatest, most long-held fears.

We all need help to do this – people upon whom we can lean on and who can hold us accountable when we start to run away from this deep personal work. If you choose to do the same sort of work on yourself, then you would be well advised to gather a similar support network around yourself too.

The choice lies with you.

If you’d like to achieve greater success in your life then it is time to take action. It all starts with the first step.

You absolutely deserve to succeed! And if you need it I’m here to help.

Gina xx

P.s. Type “Yes” in the comments and I’ll send you the link to a free digital copy of the White Paper – for Living An Enlightened Life