Blog: The difference between real fear and lazy fear

Most kids view themselves as invincible. It’s why they climb trees that are a bit too tall, or ride bikes way too fast, or otherwise put themselves in overly risky situations. Not me. I was an extremely cautious child.

I much preferred the safety of my own imagination over the wild, unpredictable real world. I would cringe when the neighborhood skateboarder tried tricks on his new ramp, or when my friends would suggest a horror movie at a sleepover.

Blame it on my sensitivity, or my old soul, or being an only child (until I was 13, at least) with too much alone time to think … but whatever the reason, my tolerance for risk and fear and the unknown was barely above zero. This showed up everywhere, including trying new foods.

A lot of kids are picky eaters, but I was pickier than most. And it lasted well beyond my childhood, too. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I assumed I didn’t like all kinds of foods that I now LOVE (salmon, omelets, guacamole — what was I thinking??), when in reality I was just too afraid to try them.

At some point in my 20s, I realized how silly it was to be afraid of trying new foods. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? You have a bad taste in your mouth for a few seconds? In terms of risk-taking, those are pretty much the lowest stakes you can imagine.

When I asked myself why I was afraid of this, I didn’t have a good answer. That’s because I wasn’t actually afraid of it anymore. It was just a holdover fear from my childhood that was now irrelevant. Because I’d lazily never bothered to question it, I was acting like the fear was just as strong as ever.

In this week’s blog I (Kristen) am talking about how fears can become habits. I’ll help you identify fears that you’ve outgrown (so you can let them go for good) and get over fears that are still active more quickly.

FREE WORKSHOP ON 6/22/18

Are you kind of tired of yourself?

There’s a certain kind of annoyed you can only get when you’re fed up with yourself — for being stuck, for not having figured out what to do to move forward, and for being afraid of taking risks.

But at the same time, how are you supposed to get unstuck when you don’t know HOW? You’re caught between a rock and a hard place.

We feel you, and we’re doing a FREE online workshop on Friday, June 22nd, 1pm EST especially for you:

3 ways to get unstuck (in your career & life) in record time.

Think of us expert mechanics: We’ve seen almost every problem there is to see, and we’ve learned a lot about fixing them ALL over the years. We’ve also got our hands on the kind of tools and fuel you haven’t had access to yet.

If you can’t make it to this workshop live, that’s OK! Anyone who registers will be sent a replay afterwards.

See you there!

LINKS

Register for the free workshop on 6/22/18

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