Everyone has a certain level of comfort with risk…some people thrive off of taking risks (which can sometimes be of the extreme death-defying sort) others need to analyze things just a little longer. Fear can be a powerful emotion, it has the ability to drive our actions or hinder us from taking action. When it comes to internal fears in a work setting, if your thought or analysis process is keeping you from “pulling the trigger” at a certain point, then you are letting your internal fears get the best of you.
You can try to rationalize your decision-making process by listing all the pros and cons of a pending choice (somehow the cons always tend to outnumber the pros), or making a list of why moving forward with a particular course of action isn’t the best idea at the present time, but at a certain point you need to be able to take on new risks in order to avoid “professional stagnation” or becoming complacent and missing opportunities to further your career goals.
I don’t want to diminish or downplay in any way personal feelings that you as a person may be experiencing. Individual feelings are an experience that only we who are going through them can relate to. It may be helpful to ask yourself: is there any underlying reason for my fears or anxiety about a particular decision? Only you will be able to determine why you feel what you feel.
Getting back to decision-making, chances are if an opportunity has become available to you, you’re probably more than ready to deal with the challenges that come with it – unless it’s rocket science…then you may want to take some extra time before “pulling the trigger.” Once you have decided to take on a new risk then you can then begin working on mitigating the negative factors that you may have previously identified. When it comes to fear in your professional career, don’t be afraid to take on a new position, project or assignment…yes there will be scrapes and bruises along the way…but those will show you what your made of, and in the end they will remind you of the work you put in to get to where you wanted to be.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Marianne Williamson
