When you tackle big goals in your life, you will inevitably be confronted with fear. Learn how to make those fears less daunting and “one weird trick” that can make fear feel good. Need advice about something? Ask us here: ForcesOfEqual.com/Advice/ Transcript Pam: [00:06] You’re listening to Not Bad Advice, where our goal is to offer perspective that helps you improve one aspect of your life at a time. [00:13] I’m Pamela Lund. CK: [00:20] And I’m CK Chung. Pam: [00:22] And we hope that after listening you’ll think, “Hey, that’s not bad advice!” [00:26] When you tackle big goals in your life, you will inevitably be confronted with fear. Whether it’s fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of what you actually need to do, such as public speaking, or any of the myriad fears that may come up. There is always some fear. [00:56] In his book, The Art of the Impossible, human performance expert Steven Kotler writes, “if you’re interested in impossible, then you’re interested in challenge; and if you’re interested in challenge, you’re going to be scared.” [01:11] Fear is also the reason most people don’t reach their goals, which is why, according to Kotler, the grit to face your fears is necessary to do great things. And you can actually learn to use fear to your advantage. CK: [01:26] Fear makes you hyper-focused because if there’s a threat to your safety, you need to focus on mitigating that threat above all else. It’s a survival mechanism. You’ve probably experienced this. If you’ve ever been walking alone in the dark and suddenly heard a noise behind you. Immediately, all of your attention is focused on identifying the noise and whether it came from someone or something that could hurt you. [01:52] Or if you’ve ever done something fun, but scary, like riding a roller coaster or going skydiving, you weren’t thinking about your to-do list while you were flying through the air. You are completely focused and in the moment, which is what being in the flow state is like. [02:09] So if you can learn to be afraid to do something, but do it anyway, you can unlock really productive, deep flow states that help you make quick progress toward your goals. Pam: [02:20] And every time you do something that you’re a little bit afraid to do, you get a hit of dopamine, AKA the feel good chemical, and of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that makes you feel alert and ready for action. Together, these chemicals can – in the right circumstances – help you concentrate and get into a flow state where you can think more clearly and do more in a shorter period of time, and then feel really great about it afterwards. CK: [02:49] But too much fear is counterproductive and can prevent you from doing anything at all. You need to find the sweet spot where it’s helpful – where it’s challenging rather than debilitating. Pam: [03:01] Steven Kotler says to do this, you need to identify and confront what he calls your Massively Transformational Fears. These are a few things that you’re scared of and that are holding you back from achieving your goals. These aren’t just your biggest fears. Like
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9 Min.