fear, the signal, not the wall

Summary

you’ve got a big decision in front of you. fear shows up like a snake wrapping your body, tightening the closer you get. that’s the signal, not the wall.

1. fear does not go away with experience. it gets louder. the team is bigger, the dollars are bigger, the losses if it goes wrong are bigger. that’s the cost of staying in the game.

2. analyze before you act. ask where the fear is coming from. some fear is protective and keeps you alive. some fear is the gatekeeper standing in front of the biggest opportunities. you have to learn the difference.

3. if you say you feel no fear, you haven’t done anything worthwhile. that’s not bravado. that’s a tell that you stopped reaching. either you’re not challenging yourself or you’re pretending. neither one is the path forward.

every big move I’ve made came with fear. signing the lease, hiring the person I wasn’t quite ready to hire, pulling the trigger on the campaign that could have flopped. the answer was never to wait until I wasn’t scared. it was to recognize the fear, decide which kind it was, and push through anyway. try harder.

Transcript

introduction to the topic of fear and its universal impact

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. You’re scared. Look, I get it. I’ve been there. You’ve got a big decision coming your way. There’s no way to know if what you decide is right or wrong. You might be ready to put in the effort, but effort is no guarantee of anything.

Just the idea of what you want to do brings fear like a snake wrapping around your entire body. And as you get closer to actually making the decision, it starts to constrict and paralyze. Feel that fear and recognize it. Oh, you’re not scared. You’re the brave, the fearless. You say that you feel no fear, then I say you’ve done nothing worthwhile.

personal reflections on how fear appears in daily life and decision-making

Fear is in us all. Learning how to harness your fear is like dancing in the rain on your wedding day rather than crying about the weather. Fear can keep you alive. Fear can also squander every opportunity that comes your way. But fear is not the problem. The problem is paralysis of indecision because of fear, or worse, the avoidance of discomfort because you are afraid.

Like I said, I’ve been there. And I can’t tell you if that the fear you are facing is the one that keeps you alive or the one that leads to growth. There’s only one way to find out. Try harder. I’m Jerred Moon. This is the Better Human Business podcast. I wanted to read a small excerpt from some of my daily writing today.

strategies for recognizing and analyzing fear

I was writing about fear. I’ve been writing a lot lately. I’m honestly in the best version of myself when I’m writing, when I’m creating. It’s when that gets stifled and I’m unable to express myself in some way, shape, or form that I start to feel like a different version of myself, someone I don’t like, someone who’s just a button pusher, a robot.

I don’t enjoy those things, but I really enjoy creating. And I wanted to bring a short podcast to you today just talking about fear because that all was kind of like a stream of consciousness, and oftentimes it is. Most of the time you’ll never hear what I’ve written. But I want you to know that if you feel fear, you need to analyze it.

practical tips for using fear as a motivator and overcoming it

You need to use it. You need to ask yourself, where is this coming from? This is a repeated theme for me. It almost doesn’t matter the emotion. You need to stop, assess, analyze. Why is it there? Where does that feeling come from? And here’s the deal. I know you have scary decisions to make, and they’re not all actual life or death in business.

It can be signing a more expensive lease. It could be hiring an employee that you’re not quite ready for. It can be leadership. It could be management. It could be advertising. There are lots of ways, whether they be small or big ways in business, that fear will come in. Now, don’t take anything I’m saying as an excuse to be stupid.

discussion on using fear to enhance decision-making and risk assessment

There’s a certain level of skepticism and fear that we feel that protect us from making poor decisions. But I think you know what I’m talking about when I’m talking about really analyzing the fear and pushing through it. It’s the big decisions. It’s the ones that could really lead to the home run. Those are the ones that you need to sit with and push through, because you will make it out on the other side.

I’ve done this several times, and the more times I do it, the more fear it brings. You think it would be the opposite. You think that I’ve made so many big, scary business decisions that they’re so easy to make now. And that’s not the case. I have more to lose now. The team’s bigger. The stakes are bigger.

encouragement to embrace fear for personal and professional growth

The dollar signs are bigger. The losses are much greater. None of this gets easier. But it’s a skill. It’s a skill to recognize fear. Anytime you get pushed up against a wall, you know, oh my gosh, this is incredibly uncomfortable. It can help you make the decision to push forward. Pushing forward against your own desire.

Now I had one small line in what I wrote, and I said, oh, you’re not scared. You’re the brave, the fearless. You say that you feel no fear, then I say you’ve done nothing worthwhile. So I want to take a brief moment to talk to those who say that they don’t feel fear. Maybe you have the ego. Maybe you pretend like you don’t feel that fear.

I’m going to challenge you and say that you haven’t really done anything worthwhile. I want to throw that in anyone’s face who says that they don’t feel fear. There’s no need for the bravado to pretend like you are fearless, when in all honesty you’re not. And then if you actually do not feel fear, and you don’t have some sort of psychological disorder, you’re not challenging yourself.

You’re not pushing yourself to a level that you need to be pushed. So remember that as you push through your daily decisions, you plan quarters, you plan years, and when those opportunities come across that make you feel fear, recognize it and decide what type of fear it is. Is it the fear that’s just going to hold you back?

Or is it the fear that you need to push through for the greater opportunity, the greater growth? Try harder.