Top Lawyer Coach, LLC

Fear is natural. It is also paralyzing.

Many people let fear stop them from achieving crucial career goals. They have high expectations of themselves, but they allow fear to deprive them of the success they are perfectly capable of achieving.

Don’t let fear stop you! In order to move from where you are now to where you want to be, you have to learn to confront your fears. Acknowledge them. Take them along for the ride.

Author Susan Jeffers said it best, “...feel the fear and do it anyway.”

Feel the Fear

Fear is uncomfortable. But if you are one of those people who will do anything to avoid the feeling of fear, then you run a HUGE risk of never getting where you want to be.

So much of what we want to accomplish in life involves risk - and, unfortunately, taking a risk doesn’t always work out. But there is a lot of truth in the old adage, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Feeling fear is not something to be afraid of. In fact, if anything, fear should light a fire inside you. It should push you forward - full speed ahead!

If You Can’t, You Must!

If your fear of taking risk is nearly debilitating, then it might be time to scale down the risk. Take on a smaller challenge and work your way up. Doing so will build your confidence, and take some of that paralyzing fear away.

For instance, if you are starting your own practice and you are uncertain about marketing, it would be wise for you to call on prospects you think will be easiest to sell services to first.

Baby steps make fear surmountable.

Leap Forward with No Strings Attached

Successful people are willing to take a chance - even if they are afraid. They feel the butterflies in their stomachs and step outside their comfort zones because they know if they do not act, the opportunity may never come again. They feel their fear…acknowledge it - then they go for it!

Risk-takers also operate with low attachment. They do everything they can do to achieve their goal, then they let it go. Sometimes they won’t get the desired outcome. This is life. The point is - they keep moving! People who take risks KEEP MOVING in the direction of their goals until they reach them.

 Amazon's Founder Felt Fear, too.

Jeff Bezos is a risk taker. The man who founded Amazon.com put everything he had into the venture which many said was doomed to fail.

Bezos certainly did not know what the future held for him and his small garage-based start-up. But he was sure the only thing he ever would have regretted was not trying it.

“I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, ‘Okay, now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have,’” says Bezos. He knew that whatever the outcome of Amazon, the only thing he ever would have regretted was not even trying it.

So Bezos took a leap. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy, especially since the Internet was still so unfamiliar to his major investors who were his parents! In fact, Bezos claims that that “blank sheet of paper stage” at the beginning is one of the hardest stages for any company, considering “it’s really just you, and you can quit any time.”

Bezos’ fear did not stop him on his path to success. And today, Amazon continues his tradition of risk-taking. “We are willing to go down a bunch of dark passageways,” he says, “and occasionally we find something that really works.”

Conclusion

Risk-taking and fear go hand-in-hand. But if you choose to let fear take over - you will stay where you are and stagnate, building up a life time of regrets.

Successful risk-takers take their anxiety and turn it into something more powerful: Drive. Fear drives risk-takers forward, and moves them to their goals.

Where would Bezos and Amazon be today without risk?

Where will you be tomorrow without risk?

Take a smart risk. It’s worth it.