Fear Are You Missing the Point?
June 2008
Fear: Are You Missing the Point?
It's all around us, especially now: terrorism, gas prices, the mortgage crisis, the environment, political negativity, and the decline of America. And in your own personal world: not making your numbers, being attacked by a colleague, appearing stupid, being criticized, and wondering if your clients are going to go away. You are right if you say, "But much has been accomplished when people are driven by fear." Or you may not even be aware of how much the pit in your stomach drives you with worry and apprehension. For many people fear has become a fact of life and a way of being.
However, you can do so much better. When fear is operating in you where is your consciousness? You are imagining a negative future that may occur. You are not actually in the present. How do you typically react to your fear? You either hesitate and hold yourself back or run around in frantic activity like a chicken with your head cut off. What's missing here is the awareness that our lives have always gone up and then down. Times of ease are followed by times of hardship, and times of hardship are followed by times of ease. This is the natural cycle of our outer reality and it will not be changing anytime soon. When we lead or work in fear we are only clinging to what we don't want. At LionHeart we call this the experience of "struggle" and say it is unnecessary. Our remedy is to accept the current moment by bringing our awareness into the present - whether it is a time of ease or a time of hardship - because we can not touch the future. Our lives are a continuous flow of current reality - one "now" moment after another. When our being is struggling with the current moment and focused on what might go wrong in the future, our creativity and inspiration are suppressed with worry and ineffective activity.
So what is the point of fear? It is a reminder that something is missing. At LionHeart we say your inner wisdom is missing and this is the source of your courage to slow down and be in the present moment long enough to return to your deepest values. We ask you to let your heart talk to you and find your way through the times of ease and times of hardship as a conscious being living up to your values, as opposed to an unconscious being living down to your fears. Here are a few tips to turn your fears into excellence that actually nourishes you, as opposed to actions that constrict or exhaust you:
1. Identify what you are currently fearful of and accept your fear without resistance, judgment, or preference to the moment being a "good" one or "bad" one - it is just the present moment.
2. Allow yourself to feel the fear completely while you return your awareness to your deepest values. Your patience, strength, courage, and creativity are always with you during both times of ease and times of hardship. These are your enduring qualities that are always waiting to be awakened when you need to respond to a moment of life you are unprepared for.
3. Transform your worry about the bad future that could happen, into your highest intention until you discover your next excellent action. This exercise shifts your attention from what is happening and what you need to do about it - to who you are being as a leader. Once you have returned to your heart's values and highest intentions your actions will have a very different quality to them than when you take action from a state of fear.
4. When the next excellent action feels right to your heart and is consistent with your values, go for it. Trust your heart to guide you to discover each new step in each new moment.
5. Remember that nothing is guaranteed. No amount of positive thinking can stop the natural cycle of ups and downs that will continue to flavor your life with variety. However, you are now operating from your values and your desire to contribute with excellence. You are leading from your love of life instead of fear. This will certainly give you a better chance at a desirable outcome than hesitation or frantic activity.
6. Accept the next moment of now as it comes to you and repeat these steps until you find personal satisfaction, harmony with those you are working with, and ultimately the results that expand your contribution to the world.
What is the ultimate point of our message? Life is short and we will all die. Now is all we have. We can lead and work from fear or we can trust our hearts to find the best course of action with each new moment. There is no satisfaction in living with compromises to our values now so we can find satisfaction later. Life will always go up and down. Wise leaders learn to navigate through the world with their attention on the values that endure beyond what we worry about losing or gaining that is impermanent - and ultimately a distraction from what really matters. When business and governmental leaders truly discover this principle, we will have an economy that offers real prosperity to everyone. Are you ready to trade in your fear, no matter how large or how small, for wisdom and courage?