Making a big decision can be pretty scary… but lots of times people worry about the wrong thing. This video is about the thing that you REALLY need to be scared of…
Video Transcript and Relevant Links
A couple weeks ago, I shot a video on fear. It came out of a question that came in…
The question was, “Jeff, how did you deal with the fear when you were just starting out? You must have been scared.”
Of course I was scared. We're all scared when we first start a business. We're all scared when we start a new big endeavor, that's just reality. I talked about that a little bit.
But I want to do a “Fear – Part Two” because there's another side of the coin that I didn't talk about.
A lot of times, people are faced with this idea of making a decision. It's time to start a business, it's time to move forward, it's time to break up a partnership, it's whatever it is — it's a big thing and people start to catastrophize it. They start to think about all these bad things, and their brain spins and spins and spins until all of a sudden, they're out on the street, homeless, no food, and everyone hates them.
When you catastrophize like this, when you focus on all the negative things, all the bad things that can happen, there's a tendency to freeze. In freezing, we will often not make a decision. The thing to understand and the thing to be really fearful of is that… not making a decision is making a decision. It's choosing to stay where you're at.
Now, I'm just assuming that you're watching this video for some reason, that you want some type of change in your life, whether it's your business, your personal life, how your business and personal life fit together, your marketing, whatever… that you're not just watching this because there's no good cat videos to watch. You're watching this because you're looking for some change in your life.
If you're letting fear hold you back so that you're not making a decision, you're choosing the life you've got right now. You know what? It'll probably actually degrade a little bit. It's just not going to stay even, it'll actually stay even and eventually degrade.
The thing to be really scared of is freezing. The thing to be scared of is not making a decision. If you're fine where you're at, that's awesome. Yay, you. But if you're just staying where you're at because you're afraid of making a decision, then you've already made that decision. The thing to be fearful of is not all these things that could possibly happen. The thing to be fearful of is getting stuck and staying stuck because you're afraid to make a decision.
I'm Jeff Walker. Wherever you're watching this, scroll down, leave a comment for me, and let's go get ‘em this week..
Caroline Burdulis, LAc, DiplOM
OK, you got me again! I consider you to be my “online daddy“ and I never fail to be amazed at how fabulous your videos are, how direct, how helpful and how inspiring! Thank you and blessings on all that you do and all that you are and for your continued health and happiness!
Elena Brooking
Just purchased PLF and haven’t even started yet but already feel like a superhero only for the fact that I took (for my limiting beliefs) a massive leap! In reality it’s only another baby step towards my big dreams !
Joanne
bravo!!
Mary
Thank you, Jeff))))))))
Mercedes Pelaez
Thanks Jcff!
“Always do what you are afraid to do”.N.N
Almost always every step of progress that we make will be in the face of difficulty and discouragement. Then… don’t let it beat you!
Michael M Tucker
Everything I want is on the other side of fear.
Heard this from Noah St John and i love it. So true for me. Have a great day. Didn’t make it to your event, but will in the future. Thanks Jeff for be putting things out there.
Kaman
This inspire me! “Not making a decision mean choose to stay at the same place”
Every moment has a choice I can or I should make in order to experience at the next moment.
Change is just making another choice.
Thanks Jeff
Fernando
Great Jeff!!!
Kent
Thank you very much and you hit the bullseye. I fear the negative and bad things that stops me cold.
Thank you, Jeff
Gina
Loved this!! Thanks, Jeff!
Sam Lyons
Hi Jeff, what a great message in your video today. Very eye opening. Thanks.
Gloria Atanmo
“Not making a decision is indeed making a decision.” Love this, Jeff! Great motivation to begin the new week. Cheers!
Ted
Well put!
As some Canadian band once said, “if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice” 🙂
Jeff Jones
Hi Jeff,
Glad to see another Rush fan among the successful people! I believe it was Neil Peart who wrote (Free Will): “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
Always look forward to your weekly videos.
Jeff
Lacy
Love this! I’m going to utilize this thinking in my coaching business with my clients who have so much fear about creating a future they love…”not making a decision is a decision to stay where you’re at.” Thanks Jeff!!
Aaron K
Great video Jeff – thank you for everything you do!
Jane Rosenblum
Very true for me. So much so that I often don’t even realize that I’ve gotten stuck when I’m afraid of taking the next logical step. This video is a big help! I’m in the beginning stages of developing and growing my business online and need to keep plugging away, doing each step as it comes up and not hesitating. Thanks for this!
David
FEAR, False Evidence Appearing Real. I heard this a long time ago and I believe it 100%. Feel the fear and do it anyway. I’m at PLF Live this week and finding so many good pieces falling into place for me. I signed up for LaunchCon in November too. This year is the year of big shifts and I’m going full throttle into embracing it.
Austin Saylor
Wait there’s cat videos online… what am I doing here?! 😉 Good word as always!!
Justin York
Another great message! Fear shouldn’t stop us doing what we want and achieving those big dreams. Thanks Jeff
Ivan
Jeff surely man as I’ve said in the previous conversation regards one of your students that man take me deeper into your business and motivated and inspired me to get onboard with you. I’m really changed after finish reading launch your book he give me. I’m in on you getting me going
Cathi
Perfect video for today. Thanks Jeff.
W. M. Raebeck
Great one, Jeff.
And there’s almost a subtext to it—that we have to KEEP changing. Even if everything’s lovely and all our dreams have come true, on the river of life we still have to paddle the kayak.
Hope you’re having the time of your life in Phoenix. Look forward to hearing about it!
Wayne Cotton, CLU
Hi Jeff. Fear is a really important topc that affects more people than we think. I like to summarize the FEAR topic with another Cottonism. “Fear, Frustration & Failure are all overcome by Faith, Focus, Forward Motion & Followthrough”.
Ed Daube
Jeff:
Good video with good advise. What you say about “catastrophising” and “not to decide is to decide” is true.
To be more precise…Anxiety (not the same as but often labelled as fear) is a future based emotion the message of which is that there MAY be a threat out there which MAY harm me. To catrastrophise is to focus ONLY on the threat and act “as if” it is both the only option and inevitable. This is called “distress” because it is disabling.
The opposite side of anxiety as “distress” is anxiety as “eustress”. Eustress is energizing. To use anxiety as eustress is to ask both “Can I survive the threat if it happens?” and “What do I need to do to prepare for the possible threat?” and then to use the energy of the anxiety as eustress to take action. This is what my students do when they study for exams.
By the way, the emotion of “anticipation” is the sister of anxiety and asks “What if it all goes great?” and then acting as if your desired future is inevitable.
Finally, the emotion of “fear” is a primary emotion which kept us alive as a species. If you actually experience “fear”, your best course of action is to escape.
Just another way to look at emotions as tools.
Ed Daube, Ph.D.
TheEmotionsDoctor.com (blog)
Barbara
Fear begets fear and I know that. It can be fear of success, failure, or anything else which might pop into your head. For me, I have to find the root cause and then eradicate it was best as possible. Most of the time for me, it’e fear of the unknown. Educating yourself helps to alleviate that problem.
Mark
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice”
~ Neil Peart – RUSH
circa 1979
Nancy Mbugua
Sincerely Jeff thanks so much ……..you don’t know what this means to me fear has been making paralyzed for very looong time……Iam freed now
Elizabeth Rodriguez Leon
Thank you Jeff!! Your message got right to my heart 😉
Lynda
Hello Jeff, love your videos. The fear that is holding me back is that I could unintentionally step on someone’s toes and be sued for plagiarism, copyright infringement, etc. Since there are so many people in the world on the internet, it really scares me. What advice can you give me? Thank you so much for your time.
Sagar
I was looking for some motivation today since morning and then I cam across this article.I am fully charged up now.