Fear | Michael Daly

When things are going your way, people will tell you to keep things in perspective – and that is fair enough. Particularly when you are starting out, they may see your pursuit of your new life as being an all-encompassing quest and tell you that it is all about finding balance and living a balanced lifestyle.

Now remember, balance is an idea. As they might say in Ireland, it is a grand idea. Only it is not a very practical one. If you want to live your best life, balance will rarely exist. For it is a very idealistic concept and not at all realistic.

Like the accomplishment of all extraordinary results, what you are trying to achieve will often mean having to give it your all-in pursuit of having it all. You may have to give all your time to achieve what now matters most to you to see it become a reality. This being the case, a balanced lifestyle may be impossible as you dedicate yourself to living the life you were born to live.

If you are told you are out of balance or you feel this might be the case for you, it usually means that other things that matter are not getting attention. The fact is that when you truly do what is most important to you, some things won’t get done or receive attention. This is a necessary trade-off for the achievement of extraordinary results, just like the achievement of the life you truly want to be living, which will often require your total focus and energy on that and that alone.

There will also be a lot of fear, both real and perceived, as you take the steps to bring your life forward. Like we have already seen, the fear never goes away fully. Likewise, this can be a time of big changes. And with change, what people fear most of all is loss. This could be the loss of the old life they had been living and all the security and safety that went with that.

As you move from the life you are living to the life you want to live, there may well be a sense of loss for all that you are now leaving behind. When dealing with and overcoming this sense of loss, our storytellers were first of all grateful for the life they had lived. They acknowledged what they were losing and leaving behind as they let go of their old life. They accepted that they were going through this to experience the better life that lay ahead. As they took steps to move forward, they stayed focused on the life they wanted to live, knowing that this is a great way to deal with fear.

If you want to follow up on what has been written here and get to read fourteen stories of people who figured out why they were born and learned to live their truth – and how you can too then please get a copy of my new book Showing Your True Colours.

Published by Genius Media it is available from:

Amazon and Genius Media

Self-leadership, staying on track and achieving your goals will often mean that there will be a danger that as you are about to achieve your goals, you will get pulled back. If faced with the option of either standing out or fitting in, the only decision really is whether to go for it and run the risk of getting dragged down or stay where you are in life.

Choosing to either fit in or stand out can be a really tough decision either way. When faced with difficulties or problems as you pursue your goals, self-leaders ask themselves intuitively: “What gift does this difficulty or problem hide?” They note the answer, which may be something like a new way of thinking, a new way of doing something or the opportunity to take a risk.
They understand that determination and stamina are required, when faced with difficulties or problems that have been caused either by their own making or because of some bad luck. When setting out to achieve their goals, self-leaders do not go out of their way to make life any harder than it has to be. They look for the path of least resistance. However, this does not stop them from taking difficult decisions and staying determined to see them through in the pursuit of the life they want to live.
If your instinct is to try and avoid dealing with a difficulty or problem, then the next time you are confronted with such a situation, do your utmost to maintain your energy and commitment to stay determined to step up to the challenge and overcome the difficulty or problem you face. If you do this, you might just find yourself tackling difficulties and problems as they arise with more drive and enthusiasm.

We all have fears and more so when pursuing the life, we really want to live, many of which we are unaware of. The first step is to become aware and accept that these fears can be rational or irrational. Regardless of whether they are rational or irrational, they are always personal to us as individuals. Remember, all ‘fear’ really stands for is: False Expectations Appearing Real

If you want to lessen your fears, once you are aware of them, you will have to face them. There really is no simple solution. Moving beyond a fear requires you to bring reason to the situation, along with courage and determination. If confrontation is something you fear, then the more you have to deal with it, and stay determined to do so, the less fear it will hold. If you accept the situations in which you find yourself and work at converting them into something positive – which is not easily done – this can have really positive results in your life and work.

Author, Speaker, Mentor

Tag: Fear

Keep things in perspective

Self-leadership, staying on track and achieving your goals.