It was my mantra for years. Being afraid and doing it anyway.
It was even the tag line of my first blog. (That’s some serious wayback shizz. You can check it out here if you want to meet a previous incarnation of me.)
It was what was true for me. I was terrified. And, not only doing it anyway, but using fear as the primary motivator to propel me forward.
It was exhausting.
And, I’m not doing it anymore.
That’s the good news. I finally feel ready to break up with fear as my trusty companion.
The maybe not so good news (at least from a business perspective) is that I haven’t yet fully connected with what it means to be motivated based on anything other than fear.
I mean I know that love is the answer. But I’m still learning to sense when I’m making decisions based on love and when it’s fear disguised as love.
Normally, this time of year, I’d be running a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, driven by the fear of running out of money, if I didn’t.
This year though, as you can see, I didn’t do it over here at Eyes Wide Open.
I let the opportunity for a sale pass. Even though I knew we’d make great money on it because there’s pent up demand for LIFT and Money Map, especially at this time of the year, when there are tax decisions to be made before year end.
But, I’m re-orienting my internal motivator — no more fear of missing out, no more fear of not enough, no more fear that something’s wrong.
Yes, it takes more time. (Fear forces fast action, without fear driving me, I notice I’m way more patient and slow.)
Yes, I have to be willing to sit with more of my feelings and emotions. (In the past, I’d take action to avoid the feelings).
And, it’s so worth it.
Instead, I took the energy I would have put into that and built a website to archive and create a history of the first-hand accounts of people’s time at Standing Rock. Without this archive, much of this history would be lost to the perpetual scroll of the Facebook feed.
You can read the reports here.
Plus, I got a week in with my family by blood (you can see us all here) and a night in with some of my chosen family.
Now, back at home in Boulder and ready to discover more about the choices I make when I’m not motivated by fear.
To your eyes (and heart) wide open life and income,
Ali
PS — Do you notice that fear is also your trust companion/primary motivator? Or have you transcended that? And, if so, what motivates you now? (And please don’t just tell me desire — because then I’ll have to ask, how do you know that desire isn’t motivated by fear? Go deeper if you are going to post in the comments. Thanks!)
That would have been an additional $50,000 in my pocket, which I could have used for my kids’ private school tuition, a trip to Bali with the family, or re-invested back into the business.
