I’ve been able to deal with and beat 95% of it. Dare I say I made my time 95% productive (writing blog posts)?

Well I know I’m now writing at levels I never really reached before. I even wrote about writing, and the methods I use to get the content done:

• Ideas cooking and serving,
• Redefine yourself,
• Document, don’t create are my got to ways.

I just type and type, and fill blank canvas while few days ago I would have been too busy getting fancy about details.

Perfectionism sucks (your time and your life).

So why 95% productive? The 5% remaining may actually be the most important.

These are the ones that actually prove the world I’ve been making stuff. Stuff like hit publish button (oh my god this is live now), and distributing (okay I published it but I have to make sure now people come and read it).

Indeed this is me.

I now have know and execute (great!) ways of pumping content quite fast. But I don’t publish, even less share it. I keep my posts as drafts.

Obsessed with adding more and editing, and what do I have forgotten to add that will make that post so much better?

This is the fear.

It’s sill a great progress because at some point fear was certainly taking way more room in my so called working time.

I’m writing this in the hope that it also reduces it even more, and for you if you have the same problem.

This is my fear document.

Some research shows that writing down a problem is like putting it away from you. It’s not just IN yourself anymore, it’ starts to get OUT of yourself.

You can see it, you are expressing it and you are able to view how silly this fear or anxiety is:

“So I’m a blogger who’s scared to blog?” That’s right. Or “So I want to help people but doesn’t say anything helpful to them?”

That’s what I’m talking about. My fear is about the consequences of showing up.

And searching a bit on taking action it seems clear this is the problem for a lot of people.

So I have to constantly refer to what’s the worst that can happen?

It really does help and maybe I should print that in big and plaster that above my screen so I instantly get the answer.

As I already said, the worst that can happen when people see my content is either a hate comment or my server crashes. Which, if I’m scared, could even be make me comfortable: “At least no one will see my post!”

Just as you may have already read that you should embrace failure because it points out your errors so you learn from those, then adjust, or switch to something else.

You have to embrace fear.

It really is about stepping out of your comfort zone BUT these words are already scary.

Stepping out of your comfort zone. In other words, make yourself uncomfortable with new actions and it wiill become new habits.

At some point change becomes the new normal. Well yeah.

That’s what actually happens when you repeatedly step out of your comfort zone.

When you are conscious of your brain delivering any excuse possible for you to not taking action or sidetracking in another direction, something cool happens too.

One self development advice is to be conscious and shut your protective brain up. Wise words.

Easy? Not always.

If you read some of my posts you know I repeated something along the lines of “a message has a better impact on people if the language/words/terms/examples used resonates more with the receiver than the same message (conveying same ideas and principle) but using different words/terms that are meaningless or in inadequation with the receiver’s brain.”

Holy crap I need to shrink that…

Let’s try…

“Advice Impact Depends of its Angle”. Hey I created a new AIDA! Mmm… no one will remember. So this may be better:

Message Angle Leads Execution (or the lack of it). That’s the ultra famous concept of Message Angle Drive (kidding, just made up…). Okay, choose your acronym, we’re wasting time here.

And that’s what I’m trying to do with my writings. Which is not simple, literally.

Because I tend to add too much stuff just to have the right language for everyone.

Because I’m not sure the content was helpful or meaningful enough. And thus it becomes not simple,while the same time you want simplicity. KISS.

Everything simple is more actionable.

Thus when I say you have to embrace fear, or when someone else tells you to step out of your comfort zone, you may not receive this message very well.

You perfectly understand it. You absolutely admit this is the right thing to do. But this doesn’t resonate with your mind, because it’s not your “language”.

Not the words that trigger action in you.

You know you want to do it, but not this way.

“Embrace failure? I’m already a freaking failure!”

“Embrace fear? Fuck no, fear sucks!”

“Step outside my comfort zone? Why the hell? You know I’m scared you want me to be even more scared?”

That’s what Mr Lizard Brain is saying. And when you’re conscious of this you may find your own language to make change happen.

So the “what is the worst that can happen?” question gets me to the consequences of taking actions. And it is a better option, for me at least.

Maybe this is something else for you. Maybe it’s

“You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take” quote by Wayne Gretzky.

Or the “I fail that’s why I succeed” Michael Jordan video.

Maybe it’s You Only Live Once #YOLO.

Or more along the lines of:

• You don’t have to please everyone, just the right ones”
• Haters gonna Hate.
• Change one life, change the world
• Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Whatever!

Maybe you should think that there is someone just like you who have the same problem and needs help, and this is where you come up.

Just to help that ONE person.

Every other person who are not relevant are just, well, not relevant.

What are your fear breaker words?

You of course can have multiple action taking triggers. If you’re a blogger, or make videos, tell me about how you approach showing up and distributing your content.

If you still fear about showing up, can you think about a past action and its consequences? Whatever it is. Something you were not comfortable doing but you did. It may had good or bad consequences, but you certainly had a reason to do it.

Another thought before I close this post, it’s turning fear upside down.

As marketers we know we should connect with prospects and customers emotionally.

And fear is one damn powerful emotion.

You may have heard about the fear of loss may be more powerful than the desire to win something.

Fear is used in copywriting to drive a desired action, i.E: buy my product or your house will burn (extreme I admit that).

Now when you don’t take action, nothing happens. “So I stay in my comfort zone, great!“.

Yes, but you also stay STUCK. You don’t move. You lose time. You lose meaningful connections and relationships.

You can only look at nothing.

So what?

You can thus use fear to create an action taking environment, incorporating your why:

• If I don’t show up,
• if I don’t publish this post/video,
• if I don’t take action…

Then the worst is going to happen: your reason why you should take action will never manifest.

You will stay stuck but most importantly:

• I won’t help people (one of your why is to genuinely help people achieve great things),
• I will have wasted so much time (on of your why is to get more free time to live the good life),
• I won’t prove all these motherfuckers wrong (one of your why is to show the naysayers you are happy doing what you do despite their not-gonna-work comments).

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Takeaway points:

• Write down your fear and anxiety related issues. Document those, what process are your goigg through, what are your thoughts. Ain’t that silly?
• Be conscious of the protective behavior of your brain. It doesn’t want you out of your comfort zone but you know you have to do it.
• Find the right language/question/words that trigger your action taking behavior. What is your MAD (I have to use it now). Embrace fear or what’s the worst that can happen? or “This will help one person”.
• Turn fear upside down: you fear the consequences of your action. What are the losing consequences of not taking action?

I hope reading that post was helpful to you as it was for me to write it. Really it helps me get the fear out of writing and publishing here.

Please add your thoughts, comments, or just say Boo! in the box below 😉