who have an outsized fear response to ordinary stimuli.
All things done without reason how to#
Related: How to Break Your Worst Work HabitsĪnd speaking of doing things that scare you, can I get vulnerable with y’all for a minute? I’m one of the ~ 19 million people in the U.S. “Simply repeatedly exposing ourselves to the thing we’re afraid of - ideally in a positive way - gradually brings down the physiologic fear response until it’s gone, or at least manageable.” “Exposure is hands down the most successful way to deal with phobias, anxiety disorders, and everyday fears of any sort,” says neuroscientist Philippe Goldin. The most effective, scientific approach to eliminating fear is to systematically expose yourself to the thing that scares you, starting small and building tolerance as you work your way up. “I consider failure on a regular basis.” How to face (and overcome) your fears “Fear should guide you,” Bill Gates once said. Fear signals there’s something of consequence on the line, a reason to exert effort.”Īs a leader, you should be feeling the kind of fear that can lead to exceptional outcomes. “As an entrepreneur, it’s energizing to do scary things, but I’m always mindful of the responsibility I have to make others successful.”Īs psychologist Amy Bucher writes, doing something scary can “inspire exceptional outcomes.” “Just as there seems to be an optimal level of stress for growth and learning, a certain amount of fear can lead to high performance.
“Raising money is scary because it means you’re responsible for the success of people other than yourself,” Nick says. Collins dubs these successful leaders “paranoid, neurotic freaks.” Our own CEO, Nick Francis, confesses that because so much of his own identity is wrapped up in Help Scout, raising funds to grow the company was one of the scariest things he’s ever done. That may help explain the success of entrepreneurs who practice what Jim Collins calls “productive paranoia” - by planning for the worst that could happen, they’re prepared to weather the storm when it does. “A lot of the need to be productive is the terror of things falling apart.” - Judd Apatow But confronting it is the way to move forward. Fear doesn’t ever really go away, nor should it. Susan Jeffers recommends you think through the outcome that makes you most afraid, so that you can then consider how you would deal with it were it to happen. In her 1987 bestseller Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Dr. It’s an approach long favored by behavioral psychologists. And the best results that I’ve had in life, the most enjoyable times, have all been from asking a simple question: What’s the worst that can happen?” More often than not it shows you exactly what you should do. Sometimes it shows you what you shouldn’t do. “Fear is your friend,” says Tim Ferriss in his TED talk. Such an efficacious outlook produces personal accomplishments, reduces stress and lowers vulnerability to depression.īut how can you set yourself up for an “efficacious outlook” to begin with, so the flywheel spins the way you want it to? Think through the worst-case scenario They approach threatening situations with assurance that they can exercise control over them. They attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills which are acquirable. They quickly recover their sense of efficacy after failures or setbacks. They heighten and sustain their efforts in the face of failure. They set themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them. People who have performed well in the past tend to believe the same will hold for the future, and they “approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided”: Such an efficacious outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep engrossment in activities. That’s in line with Albert Bandura’s oft-cited concept of self-efficacy, which explains how we get either more or less capable depending on prior experiences. “An individual develops courage by doing courageous acts” - Aristotle
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