Change in the face of fear?

Most of us are finding ourselves in a” life-boat” right about now. I’m sure many of you are evaluating some choices and lifestyle behaviors that are contributing to this present-day crisis. For example, re-thinking why you didn’t push a little harder in your career, why you didn’t spend less and save more, or spend more time doing something that you felt you just never had the time to do.

Now you are home and making choices and changes. You’re afraid and are second-guessing yourself on how you could have adopted different choices before this crisis happened, thinking you would have felt a little more settled.

Your fear is motivating a change. Fear has two sides to it. One side is it can debilitate the motivation for change. Like a deer in the road looking at headlights, it just stands there. Some of the reasons for inaction can be that you are afraid of rejection, failure, afraid of getting out of your comfort zone, and change is uncertain to mention a few.

On the other hand, fear can be a great motivator like now. Fear kicks in so that our survival instincts push you to do whatever it takes to survive initiating superpowers, clarity, focus, and drive. Just like when a car is coming at us and like lightning speed, we jump and get out of the way. Awesome!

You can see in each example we all handle fear differently. So now you’re taking the active stance, you’re feeling those superhuman abilities, you’re jumping into the drivers’ seat from the back seat. Great, good for you.  The question, is how will you keep it going once life resumes back to “normal”? Once you get comfortable again. How will you decide what you think you want to change, is really what you REALLY want to change once the adrenal calms down?

Here are a few tips for helping you think clearly and help to make the change permanent.

1: What is the goal of why you want to make certain changes? Is it because you have a passion for it, you finally realize this is something you have always wanted to do, or you took a good look at yourself and know that this is something that needs be conquered once and for all.

2. Research what is really involved in this change and is it something realistic. Do you have the finances, the time, or the endurance to continue even if you do not have the support of others? Are you doing it because you want to and not because you feel you should for other's sake?

3. What are the obstacles you may encounter and how will you be prepared to overcome them. How will you pay for it, how will you make time once you’re back in the rat-race, what sacrifices will you need to make? You may not have all the answers, however, being as prepared as possible and lining up a lifeline will help when life tries to derail you. Have your mantra prepared.

4. Know what your goal is and why. Knowing what your goal is and why is a great way to stay on track. Keeping the finish line in your minds-eye is a great way to stay on the right road. It will also let you know when you get off that road to success.

5. Keep track of all the small successes along the way and celebrate each one. Change is scary and most people don’t stick with it, as we know from all the New Years' resolutions made each year. However, we all have the ability to make it happen, so you can too.

Good luck and let me know how you are making it happen and your successes.