Fear is such a powerful force that can it sabotage even the most amazing of opportunities.
Imagine your dream job is just a “yes” away from being your reality! It’s everything you’ve worked for your entire career. It’s perfect! You’re so excited, you can hardly contain yourself. You’re so ready! You’ve even drafted your resignation letter in your mind. You’re up at night thinking about how incredible this new role would be.
Then the fears creep in.
Fear of failure. You’re a star where you are, but that’s probably just because you’ve been there for a while.
What if it were never about your abilities? What if your success was always just about being in the right place at the right time? What if you make a career change and everyone realizes you’re not qualified? Who are you kidding? You don’t have experience with the 12th bullet point of the 33-bullet point job description.
You’ll surely fail. You won’t be able to get your old job back. No one else will hire you. Soon you’ll run out of reserves and you will end up on the streets, cold, hungry and alone.
Fear of the unknown. You’ve built a good career and a great reputation where you are. You know how to navigate the politics including what and who to avoid. You know how to be successful where you are.
What if when you make your big move, with every step you take, you step in it? What if you’re more miserable there than you are now? The evil you know is better than evil you don’t, right?
Besides, this move sounds too good to be true. There must be something you’re not seeing. It’s likely all just a facade.
Fear of success. It’s the dream job you’ve worked so hard to get! Or is it?
If you get this job, it’ll be a lot more work than you’re putting in now, and significantly more responsibility? You’ll probably have to work late every night and on the weekends. That’s the cost of a dream job.
You’ll have no personal time. Your spouse or partner will likely leave you and your family and friends will disown you. You’ll only have work you love to comfort you and even if it pays gobs of money, you’ll have no one to share that with.
The exaggerations are not meant to mock or minimize the validity of your fears. They’re meant to illustrate how quickly they can spiral. Not only have most of us experienced these fears at varying levels, but when I decided to leave corporate consulting to start my own business, these were my exact fears!
What’s important is what you do with your fears. Here are 3 steps to crush them:
- Acknowledge the fear. Fear can be a healthy warning to proceed with caution. It can also be debilitating. Name that fear, understand where it’s coming from, and dissect it. Imagine the worst possible scenario that can happen, and test it for reasonableness. Then think about the sequence of events that would lead you there.
- Get strategic. Now that you’ve identified the fear, its source, and what it would take to materialize, develop a step-by-step plan to crush it. What do you need to learn more about? What support will you need? What success factors will you negotiate for? What is your back up plan? How will you know if and when to activate it? What can you do to give yourself comfort that what you’re afraid of won’t devastate you?
- Engage your champions. Why do this alone? Surely there are people who can help you navigate your fears. Engage your coaches and mentors to help guide you through the process. Seek people in similar roles and ask about their experiences. Reach out to an insider to learn more about “a day in the life,” expectations, success factors, and get the most unfiltered perspective you can before you accept.
With your fears crushed, you should feel energized and empowered to go after what you know is an amazing opportunity with the potential to not only transform your career, but also change your life!