I come across a variety of business professionals in my coaching and workshops. Some do very well for themselves while others struggle. There is one consistent condition separating the two- fear.

People vacillate for many reasons, comfort zone, lack of risk and fear of the unknown. It is this fear that retards most businesses and professionals from propelling forward. What then is fear? Simply, fear is a condition that manifests based on beliefs and attitudes. These erroneous conditions are built from pervious experiences or perhaps reading or watching the experiences of others.

Fear is a deadly disease. Fear retards growth. And one of the conditions of fear is the inability or desire to remain in the comfort zone.

However, facing fear and removal from the comfort zone enables education. When one takes risks one learns. Refraining from fear freezes business professionals from experiences and ideas that might allow them to break from the pack. Exemplars include Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King. While only a few of thousands of examples, all faced fear, took prudent risks and became better for it.

Fear is not a negative condition but a teacher. When we face fear we learn. We reach new markets, develop new products and provide better service. Fear takes what we do not know and enables us to experiment and learn new best practices. Most importantly fear stops us from doing hundreds of things poorly and using a microcosm of things well.

To face fear, you need to let go. You need to step away from those things that make you comfortable and you need to take some prudent risk. You also need to look in the mirror and answer the following: What holds you back?

©2009 Drew J. Stevens PhD All rights reserved.

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