Fear is an asshole

A coach I've worked with, Carolyn Freyer-Jones, has a great phrase she offers up whenever someone is recounting all of the reasons they are not taking action toward their dreams.

“Do it afraid.”

Yes it feels scary. Yes the fear is there. Yes you are worried about doing it. Do it anyways. Do it afraid.

The difficulty when we are putting ourselves out there in new ways is that we often mistake our fear as intuition. We hear "Do it afraid," and we start to wonder, "What if I'm afraid for good reason? What if this is an important warning sign? What if this is my intuition speaking up?"

Intuition is clear. It's a calling. Intuition is what happens when I'm on a call with a client and some random exercise I never use comes out of my mouth before I realize it, and it's exactly what that client needed. Intuition is having an idea for a creative project pop into your head out of nowhere at 2am - which ends up being a smash hit. Intuition is what happens when all of the subtle ideas and facts and circumstances around you finally accumulate into one big fat knowing.

Intuition isn't mean - it's firm, but it's kind. Intuition's BFF is creativity. You know intuition is in the room if you can find creativity rather easily. They're always hanging out. Intuition is awesome and creativity knows it. 

Fear is an asshole.  Fear likes to put on intuition's clothes but then will say things like, "If only you were more talented, this wouldn't be so hard. If only you were more educated, then you would deserve it. If only you were more experienced, you would have it already. But you don't have it already. And that's probably for a reason. There's a reason it's so hard. You don't deserve it."

Like I said, fear is an asshole. This is why creativity does not hang out with fear. Fear will say until it's dying breath that it is intuition. But when you look around, creativity is nowhere to be found. Fear has locked creativity in a closet. Fear is a wolf in sheep's clothing. 

So, when people hear, "Do it afraid," they feel, "Go against your intuition." But, no. They're not the same. Fear just wants us to think that.  

Ask yourself, right now, as you're thinking about your situation, and a thousand butifonly's are popping up in your head - do you feel creative? Do you feel like there are endless possibilities in the world for the taking? If so, then sure, listen to those voices. They are likely intuitive hesitations. 

If, however, creativity is not around - your concern is not a sign, it's not rationale, it's not reason. It's just fear. So do it afraid! You've got this.