Fear, to our mind, is what “Alerts” are to your laptop. You enter an unsecure site, you get an alert - you open a potentially virus infected email, you get an alert - A website dumps a heap of spyware on you – you get an alert. And that’s a good thing. Alerts ensure the survival of your laptop/pc and in-turn ensures the survival of you, by keeping you connected to the world, and safekeeping the information you store.
Fear is much the same; it is no more than a signal sent by your unconscious mind triggering a series of physical responses (such as increased heart rate, and adrenalin flow) letting the cognitive part of your mind know there’s a risk ahead. And that’s fantastic. Not only does this ensure our survival, but it also furnishes our emotional bank with all the pleasures associated with fear. Excitement, thrill, adrenalin rush, heightened senses, post-fear euphoria, a sense of achievement and so many more.
Furthermore, like the “alerts”, fear introduces a choice.
Continue - Cancel
You feel the fear, and then you get to chose to proceed. Because you know, that sometimes (maybe even MOST of the time) the alerts are unnecessary. In fact, after a while, you start to almost ignore fear signals and chose to continue in spite of them. And the more you do that, the more you enjoy the indulgence associated with fear. So be careful, you can become addicted to the rush as all adrenalin junkies are. But then again, they seem to have lots of fun, so why not!
To make the point of how this can be applied in real life, I’ll tell you a little about me and how I survived the so-called “economic downturn” up to this point. While people were saying the economy is bad, and most were scared shitless of losing their jobs. I decided, after careful consideration, that it was, in fact, the best time for me to quit my job. I knew that work during the recession was going to be miserable (I work in media/advertising sales). Being told, everyday, by every client that they are cutting down their advertising budgets, while my superiors rant about their desperation to get sales on the board is as ridiculous as going to work every day and nailing staples into your skin from 9am to 5pm)
I resigned, and have, since, enjoyed 6 months of “personal development” time. I make less money now, but I know with my newly acquired knowledge and skills I can earn in my next job double what I might have made in the last one. The first thing I learned is “speed reading”, then I learned to improve my memory, then spent the last 5 months studying business, sales, marketing, PR and everything that I can get a hold of to improve my skills in future work.
I also made a little money on the side by starting my own NLP therapy practice, working only 10 hours a week. All the while, enjoying long lunches, day trips to my favourite spots, catching up with every friend I didn’t have the time to see when I was working full time and all-in-all having a great time.
Now I know you’re thinking “crazy, no way am I going to quit my job, I can’t afford it, I’d lose my house, I could be out of work for months...etc...” and that’s ok. What I did, isn’t for everyone. The point I’m making is that in my case, after serious thought (uncluttered by emotion – read “fear”), I decided that my education and experience ensured I wasn’t going to be out of work forever. The car was really nice, but with better skills and an upgrade to my mind, I could boost my income in future jobs, and get a nicer car, so I sold it. Plus I had the safety of an additional skill to help me survive financially for upto a year without even getting bored. And that was a much better investment of 6 to 12 months of my life, than going to work everyday to hear clients and management compete over who has it the hardest/worst, and worrying about losing my job.
So have a look at your life, identify the things that make you unhappy, find out what the alternatives are and when your fear kicks in to prevent from making changes and venturing out of your comfort zone, remind yourself of all the logical reason to proceed with making the change and start getting excited, because there’s some serious fun, delight and even ecstasy in making leaps into a better future. A recession, is actually, the best time for life changing decisions because.... well.... why don’t you think of the reasons that fit your life.
See more on
http://www.maxfreemynd.blogspot.com/