I’ve heard many actors say they never get rid of stage fright.
Barbara Streisand, one of the top singers in the world, admitted that she has debilitating stage freight.
I’ve heard many actors give interviews where they admit they never get over their stage freight.
Fear is a fascinating emotion.
I’ve heard that most of our fears are learned emotions.
We experience a negative experience, and then we become scared of it.
I have a fear of heights.
A few years ago, I took my four-year-old son Levi to the top of a lighthouse in North Carolina.
It was a beautiful red brick lighthouse.
As we got to the observation point of the lighthouse, the view from the top was stunning.
Yet the observation point was not enclosed.
There was a rod iron enclosure.
The first thought that came to my mind was I was seeing my son Levi slipping through the rod iron encloser and plummeting.
Where in the world did this fear come from?
Maybe it was a father’s instinct to protect his son.
When my daughter Norah was seven, she and I went to the top floor of the John Hancock building in Chicago.
It was a beautiful sunny day.
The view is awe-inspiring.
I became Nervous when Norah went to close to the glass walls that surrounded the top floor.
The top floor is completely enclosed.
The only way someone would fall from the top floor of the John Hancock building would be if the glass walls were broken.
Yet my fear of seeing my daughter fall from the top floor of the building kicked in.
I’ve never fallen from any heights.
I’ve never seen anyone fall from a high building.
Yet the fear of falling still rests in my psyche.
I used to have a fear of public speaking.
Fear of speaking in front of a crowd is one of the top fears of humanity.
Jerry Seinfeld has a joke where he compares the fear of public speaking and the fear of dying.
Jerry states that more people are scared of speaking in public than dying.
This means if you were at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than at the pulpit.
One of the other fears I encounter regularly is calling leads that I get for my Profit First services.
When I get a lead, my first action is to call the leads to introduce myself to them, and to learn more about them and their business, the first emotion I feel is fear.
I haven’t quite put my finger on why I experience the fear.
The leads I get are interested in getting help from me.
Yet, I still experience fear before calling the leads.
I’ve recognized that fear is just a part of the process.
I’m going to continue to feel the fear.
I recognize that the fear will be there, and there is nothing I can do to minimize the fear.
The best thing I can do is take action and call the lead.
By taking action, I move beyond the fear zone into a point where I can help people.
I’m reminded of one of Franklin D Roosevelt’s most famous quotes.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Most often, the fears I experience are tied to things that pose no danger to me.
Sometimes when I’m fearful, I say to myself, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
Fear is a normal human emotion, and it always rears its head at the most inopportune times.
I accept that I will face fear, and the best way to overcome the fears is by doing the thing that scares me.
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