In Michelle Obama’s latest book, The Light We Carry, she emphasises how insidious and pervasive fear has been and continues to be in her life. As an example, she outlines in the book how her fear could have changed the course of history – if she had given in to her fears and said, “No”, when her husband, Barack Obama, wanted to run for President of the United States of America. Luckily she didn’t, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In Michelle’s example, as is the case for many of us, there may be legitimate concerns in which our fear is anchored which causes us to say no. But often, what we don’t always appreciate are:

• That our fears tend to show us the worst-case scenarios, and not our resolve and ability to cope, our resilience and our creativity to figure things out, so that we will not proceed;
• That we really do not know how these new challenges and experiences will unfold; and
• That our skills, capabilities and our past experiences are likely to have prepared us for the journey and new challenges that we will inevitably encounter.

In other words, we underestimate ourselves and allow fear to win. However, if you can acknowledge your fears, but trust yourself more, the sky’s the limit as to what you can achieve!

 

 

Best wishes and have a great day!!