I recently read an article that asked this question.  What are you so afraid of?

In business and in life we hold ourselves back so often because of fear.  Fear of loss, fear of hurt, fear of pain, fear of failure.  I ask the question, what if fear didn’t exist?  What if you were allowed to do whatever you wanted without the fear of….fear. Would you have accomplished more in your life?  The answer has to be yes.

In our careers we often settle for the safe road.  Your parents told you when you first started out in your career to take the safe job, the one that was going to be slow and steady as opposed to the risky one that may pay you more.  Don’t forget that you were taking this advice from someone who was thirty or forty years removed from their first job so it was easy for them to tell you to take the safe path. 

I always try to look at life as there are two options.  Option A is going to be slower, steadier, and may net the smallest return in the long term.  Option B will be fast, hot, crazy, and can give you the largest satisfaction and most fulfilling life, but there is always that chance that it may fizzle out and you’ll have to go back to Option A.

What if it didn’t fizzle out?  What if you got that return with Option B and had the most fulfillment. What if you went for it and hit it big?  That would really be something else huh.  But wait, is it fear? What are you so afraid of? Failure? Again, lets pretend that fear doesn’t exist.  What would you do now?

In your personal life, you work 8-5, you drive the same route to work every day, you marry the person who provides stability, and you never step outside that box.  Soon you wake up thirty years later wondering what the hell have you done with your life and could it have been more fulfilling?  What would you have done if you didn’t have fear?  Would you have taken a chance on a different career half way in?  Would you have picked the spouse your family told you to stay away from? Would you have had more children even though you thought your income couldn’t handle it? What would you have done without fear?

So I ask again, what are you so afraid of? 

What if Bill Gates and Steve Jobs would have been afraid to fail when they started two of the most successful computer companies in the world?  What if Martin Luther King Jr. would told his peers that he was too afraid to make that speech? What if Jackie Robinson would have stayed in the Negro leagues? What if The Wright Brothers would have never set out to start aviation? The list goes on. 

The question is, what are you afraid of?

In your personal life, in your work life, start facing your fears.  Step outside the box, accomplish the goals you want to accomplish, tell fear to screw off, and change your life the way you want it changed.

Stop being afraid, fear holds us back.