I love self-development as much as my high-achieving clients do. Recently I read a book in which a quote jumped out and grabbed me, and I thought I’d share it. It’s a pithy instruction for making smoother changes or transitions into your own dreams.
It comes from the book Elite Minds: How Winners Think Differently to Create a Competitive Edge and Maximize Success, by Dr. Stan Beecham.
The author states that, “Fear is keeping you from reaching your potential. Therefore, conquering fear should be your primary goal in life.”
Your primary goal.
Most of my clients are looking to set newer, higher goals in their lives and in their careers. They want to run for office. Or they look to set personal goals like finishing an ironman race.
These are wonderful goals to have, and the value of coaching is to get you there faster and smarter. Yet Beecham says the primary goal we should focus on is conquering our fear. He says this single factor holds us back from all our goals.
If we stay in fear, roadblocks or excuses may crop up. Someone will appear to tell us that we are not good enough, not strong enough, or not equipped enough to make our goals happen. Our internal fears often translate into seemingly external experiences.
Perhaps, at the same time that we chip away towards new goals, we should also work on our fears or resistance to those very goals.
Practice and Observe
How can we each find ways to conquer our biggest fear? Let’s do this exercise together, over the next few weeks. I feel that this could benefit all of us, myself included.
I am aware that this quote jumped out at me because I am still working on eliminating my fears. One of my personal fears, for instance, is of losing control. Thankfully, I’m not a control freak as much as when I was younger. But still, when I am feeling that I want to change things I can’t change, or that I have no say in some areas or topics of my life, my fears make me feel a little less capable, a little more stressed or worried.
How about you?
What’s interesting to me is this. If I was strictly focusing on conquering fear, I should be able to overcome it much more easily. More of my resources would be applied.
Test out this exercise and observe its effects. Try it as an experiment. Keep this quote as a mantra: “Fear is keeping me from reaching my potential, and conquering fear should be my primary goal in life.”
Post it where you will see it, to the mirror in your bathroom, and maybe on your car’s rear-view mirror. Say it out loud a few times each day. Vary how you say it. How does it feel?
“FEAR is keeping me from reaching my GOALS. Conquering my fear TODAY should be my PRIMARY goal.”
“Fear is keeping ME from reaching MY goals. Conquering MY fear today should be MY primary goal.”
Let’s all of us practice this mantra and watch its effects. I know it will have an impact. Even just rereading this quote several times recently has already deeply impacted me again. It reminded me not to chase my goals unless I have conquered my fear, because the fear will always be the thing that tells you to let your project go, or to feel distracted, or to procrastinate.
Do you know exactly what fears you should eliminate? Are you doing something about it? Self-awareness is step #1. From there, emotions, including fear, can be managed.
Again: Fear is keeping you from reaching your potential. Conquering fear should be your primary goal in life.
I hope you enjoy acting on this insight to make attaining your goals simpler or easier. I highly recommend you read the entire book, Elite Minds, by Dr. Stan Beecham. This tidbit was just one of the many insights I gleaned from his work.