Where fear gets its power
‘Fear gets its power from our not looking at either the fear or what we’re afraid of. Remember that attic or closet door behind which something terrifying waited, and the longer we didn’t look, the harder it was to open that door.’
This quote is from a passage on page 14 of The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo.
I mention it in relation to the fear of delivering a presentation that many of you experience.
Here is more from the passage …
‘It seems whatever the door, whatever our fear – be it love, or truth or even the prospect of death (or the prospect of doing a bad presentation*) –
we all have this choice, again and again and again: avoiding that part of our house, or opening the door and finding out more about ourselves by waiting until what is dark becomes seeable.’
(*my insertion)
Own the Conversation
Implementation suggestion
Over the next seven days:
- Commit to take action on a fear on specific date; Insert the action in your calendar; Complete the action on that date.
- Enlist an accountability partner to contact you the day after the action date, to check if you did what you committed to do. (You might offer to be their accountability partner).
- When you’ve done the action, give yourself a reward (a pat on the shoulder, internally saying ‘Well done’, or draw a smiley face) and record doing the action in a, for example, ‘My Wins’ et al folder.
- Put a note in your calendar 30 days from doing the action date.
- On the review date, relive doing the action and reward yourself again the action.
As I’ve shared before . . . The universe rewards action.