How To Live With 'THE FEAR'

Every morning on the way to work, there's a particular set of traffic lights that are near my office. As they seem to hate me, I nearly always find myself waiting at the red light for long enough time to give myself a daily inner pep talk saying, 'Just get through today. Today will be different. You can do it.'

The truth is, this is a product of THE FEAR. Surely we all know what this FEAR is. It's the onset cold sweaty palms as more and more people call or instant message you about something. It's mild heart attack seeing how little time you have to get through SO MUCH WORK. It's lying down after a long day groaning that you have to live through it all again tomorrow. I really love something in the 'Brain on 23' HuffPost blog by Molly Sprayregen that says, 'we are proud of each other but hard on ourselves.'

And it's true. We have the fear that everyday someone/something is going to catch us out or pull the rug out from underneath us. Either way, show us up to be not good enough.

In reality it might be the complete opposite. People think you're great, you get good feedback, your meetings with your colleagues are always O.K. but with every bit of responsibility you get, that's more you need to hold onto with your fingertips.

Another harsh reality is that this constant fear may never really go away.




The key is to try and live with it. A friend once told me that if I want to maintain ambition, keep pushing myself, there's a part of me I almost have to 'switch off'. At first I thought this sounded really silly and impossible but then on second thought, why not?

If you really care about what you're doing, the slightest thing that doesn't go right might be a piece of your world crashing before you. In this case you essentially have to not care as much. Keep going the direction you're going in with tunnel-vision and move on as quickly as you can to just survive.

Seriously. Do NOT falter. Keep moving. But ask yourself at the end of the day, 'Did I do the most right that I could have done today?' If yes-go home. Don't work later in the evening. Get some sleep.