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Fear as an instinct is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it warns us of apparent danger. On the other, a lot of its warnings are misconstrued and unnecessary. The fear that alerts you to run when an attacker is coming at you with a knife is the exact same fear that’s keeping you from leaving the 9-to-5 and using your talents to carve your own niche.
Like other emotions, though, fear can be mastered little by little. While it will probably take a lifetime’s work to exercise complete control over it, you should be able to work through it enough to learn to harness it instead of succumbing to its apprehensions. This is a good example of lifestyle design, taking something that works against you and making it work for you or simply thinking outside the box a little and seeing things in a new light.
Directing It
When fear is misdirected – such as when you fear starting a new business or living in a new place – you can turn it 180-degrees and begin feeling the same emotion towards its opposite. Aren’t you afraid you’ll be stuck in a 9 to 5 forever and never fulfill your true potential? Aren’t you in fear that you’ll live a drab life, unable to experience the joys of a new environment and a different culture?
Since the fear will come, like it always does, why not consciously aim it at something that you logically disdain? Instead of being a hindrance, you can use it as extra leverage to help push you towards acting to fulfill your dreams. What is scarier, taking the risk of leaving your cubicle or staying there for the rest of your working life.
Letting fear rule your life is one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make. There is no success without failure and I’m sure every successful person can give you multiple examples of their failures so failure is not something to fear.
I’m willing to give it a try because my greatest fear isn’t not reaching my goals but what my life will be like if I don’t attempt to achieve them with every ounce of passion I have for them. We will and you will find a way if you have the passion for it, because with a real fire in your belly for it fear is no longer a demotivater but an enabler.
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Comments
06.22.09
Oh yes. I am so very afraid that my 9-5 job won't allow me to travel around the world, meet new and interesting people, and engage in a variety of refreshing experiences. Clearly, the only way my life will have any meaning at all is if I become an entrepeneur. Then I will be free to ride bicycles and abandon them on ramshackle docks on a lake, if the picture accompanying this article is correct.
06.22.09
Phalange - back to your cubicle and resume drudgery.
06.22.09
Brad - Go back to all of your failed useless startups, your box of ramen noodles, and your shitty 400 square foot apartment. Hopefully the celining is high enough for you to hang yourself! :)
06.22.09
If you visit the site this post is from you might understand the context better and that your conclusion is way off. I don't fill my posts with qualifications to keep everyone happy but then I know that's not a good idea when you're only response to a challenge is suggest someone kill themselves.
06.22.09
This is an interesting dichotomy i've come across in various contexts. I've been both a (successful) wage slave and a travel bum. I don't think either really are the answer in isolation. When I was working I wanted to be travelling, when I was travelling I had great ideas about working.
Like anything in life it comes down to a balance. I think what Dan is saying is that you have all the opportunity in the world to do what you want - where ever you want. Which is true. The hard thing is actually doing it, I'm trying to find my balance still.
However, i've found it very common for people who find it very easy to sit at the sidelines and pick holes at what Dan is trying to achieve. Why? What is so offensive to them that they are trying to better themselves? I think it smacks of jealousy, because someone doesn't validate their own beliefs, and the only way they can react is by being offensive.
Do your 9-5, be happy with it. Just don't bitch about people choosing to do something different - because it says more about you than you realise.
06.22.09
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
06.23.09
Sorry Dan, I'm not upping the page hits on your blog.
"but then I know that's not a good idea when you're only response to a challenge is suggest someone kill themselves." - reallly? How is "back to your cubicle and resume drudgery" a challenge? That wasn't exactly an intellectual gauntlet drop. It sounded to me like the angry whinings of a pretentious douchebag who can't get a real job and thus has to degrade those who can.
Steve - I have no issues with people who decide to become entrepeneurs. If that's what makes them happy, awesome! But don't write a hastily constructed blog post spouting cliched drivel about conquering your fear with the subtext that a conventional job = failure.
06.23.09
Don't worry you've already sent the traffic.
I've challenged your opinion not your job.
There is not subtext that a conventional job = failure. Like you said if that makes you happy, awesome. I'm appealing to the people out there who are entrepreneurs but have been sucked into the idea that a conventional job is the responsible way to go in life. For them the cubicle is drudgery.
I work 9 to 5 in what would be considered a good "real job" and I know how they feel. I could spend my time in it whining and making personal attacks on the internet but I've chosen to WORK my way out of it and share with other like minded people a way that helps keep me motivated.
Like I said, I'm not going to make qualifications in all my posts for others who find their way to my site and take personal offense to what I say to people with a different perspective them.
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