Tuesday morning, I was sitting in the waiting room at Rose Hospital in Denver while Cathy was undergoing shoulder replacement surgery.  Nurses would come out to get patients who were scheduled for surgery.  When the nurse called one guy to go in for his pre op preparations, he said, “He’s not here.  He chickened out.”  Then he went into have his procedure done.  Good for him.  Surgery is scary.  I remember when I had my cancer surgery.  I had more than a little anxiety.

All of this stuff surrounding surgery reminded me of Tweet 47 in my career success book, Success Tweets.  “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self-confidence.”

Just like Cathy who had to be willing to act on her shoulder pain, and have joint replacement surgery, all of us will encounter scary moments on our road to life and career success.  We are better off when we approach these moments with confidence.  I felt very confident after meeting Cathy’s surgical team.  She did too.  That reduced a lot of our anxiety about the surgery.

Let’s talk about how confidence can help you deal with the scary moments you encounter on your road to career success.  I subscribe to Sharon Melnick’s online newsletter.  In a recent post, she made several interesting points about confidence.

• Confidence will help you be flexible.  You will consider all alternatives and options.
• Confidence will help you follow through on ideas that you might otherwise talk yourself out of.
• Confidence will help you be persistent – and hold on to your vision for your life.b

She’s right.  Confidence is the foundation of all life and career success.  Without it, you will have a difficult time succeeding.  To build your self-confidence, you have to be optimistic, face your fears and surround yourself with positive people.

Fear is a great confidence and success killer.  Elbert Hubbard, the author of “A Message to Garcia” (http://budbilanich.com/garcia), one of the best essays on personal responsibility ever written, has some great things to say about facing your fears…

“The greatest mistake you can make is continually fearing that you will make one.”

Read that again.  Those 14 words are powerful!  They are some fundamental career advice.

If you let your fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action, you will never take any action and your fear will ruin your life and any chance of creating the career success you want and deserve.

In 1988 I was ready to start my career success coach and speaking business.  I was afraid.  I was worried that I wouldn’t succeed.  I had always worked for large companies.  I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what to do to run a successful career success coach business.  Nevertheless, I looked my fear in the eye, quit my job and moved forward.  Twenty-four years later, I’m still at it.  My fears were unfounded – but they were real.  I’m glad I faced them and acted.

Fear is persistent.  It doesn’t go away.  It will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike.  If you let it get the best of you, you’ll never move forward.

Fear most often manifests itself in procrastination.  When I find myself procrastinating, I always ask myself, “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”  Identifying what I fear always help me defeat it.  Once I identify what I am afraid of, I can take positive steps to move forward through my fear and on to success.

Make a list of your doubts and fears.  Decide what you can do to overcome them.  Then act.  Take at least one positive action – no matter how small – every day to overcome your doubts and fears.  Even if these actions don’t work out as well as you hope, you will be on the road to overcoming your fears and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Remember, procrastination feeds fear, and action cures it.  The choice is up to you.  I choose action.  My best career advice says you should, too.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people are self-confident.  Self-confident people don’t let their fears get in the way of their success.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets.  “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self-confidence.”  Identify your fears, and then do what you need to do to move past them.  Action is the great antidote to fear.  It puts inertia on your side.  Once you are moving forward, you are likely to continue moving forward.  It’s the first step that is the hardest – and scariest.  If you want to beat your fears, you need to take the first step – act, and then keep on going.

That’s the career advice prompted by my time in the waiting room during Cathy’s surgery.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Tuesday morning, I was sitting in the waiting room at Rose Hospital in Denver while Cathy was undergoing shoulder replacement surgery.  Nurses would come out to get patients who were scheduled for surgery.  When the nurse called one guy to go in for his pre op preparations, he said, “He’s not here.  He chickened out.”  Then he went into have his procedure done.  Good for him.  Surgery is scary.  I remember when I had my cancer surgery.  I had more than a little anxiety.

All of this stuff surrounding surgery reminded me of Tweet 47 in my career success book, Success Tweets.  “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self-confidence.”

Just like Cathy who had to be willing to act on her shoulder pain, and have joint replacement surgery, all of us will encounter scary moments on our road to life and career success.  We are better off when we approach these moments with confidence.  I felt very confident after meeting Cathy’s surgical team.  She did too.  That reduced a lot of our anxiety about the surgery.

Let’s talk about how confidence can help you deal with the scary moments you encounter on your road to career success.  I subscribe to Sharon Melnick’s online newsletter.  In a recent post, she made several interesting points about confidence.

• Confidence will help you be flexible.  You will consider all alternatives and options.
• Confidence will help you follow through on ideas that you might otherwise talk yourself out of.
• Confidence will help you be persistent – and hold on to your vision for your life.b

She’s right.  Confidence is the foundation of all life and career success.  Without it, you will have a difficult time succeeding.  To build your self-confidence, you have to be optimistic, face your fears and surround yourself with positive people.

Fear is a great confidence and success killer.  Elbert Hubbard, the author of “A Message to Garcia” (http://budbilanich.com/garcia), one of the best essays on personal responsibility ever written, has some great things to say about facing your fears…

“The greatest mistake you can make is continually fearing that you will make one.”

Read that again.  Those 14 words are powerful!  They are some fundamental career advice.

If you let your fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action, you will never take any action and your fear will ruin your life and any chance of creating the career success you want and deserve.

In 1988 I was ready to start my career success coach and speaking business.  I was afraid.  I was worried that I wouldn’t succeed.  I had always worked for large companies.  I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what to do to run a successful career success coach business.  Nevertheless, I looked my fear in the eye, quit my job and moved forward.  Twenty-four years later, I’m still at it.  My fears were unfounded – but they were real.  I’m glad I faced them and acted.

Fear is persistent.  It doesn’t go away.  It will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike.  If you let it get the best of you, you’ll never move forward.

Fear most often manifests itself in procrastination.  When I find myself procrastinating, I always ask myself, “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”  Identifying what I fear always help me defeat it.  Once I identify what I am afraid of, I can take positive steps to move forward through my fear and on to success.

Make a list of your doubts and fears.  Decide what you can do to overcome them.  Then act.  Take at least one positive action – no matter how small – every day to overcome your doubts and fears.  Even if these actions don’t work out as well as you hope, you will be on the road to overcoming your fears and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Remember, procrastination feeds fear, and action cures it.  The choice is up to you.  I choose action.  My best career advice says you should, too.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people are self-confident.  Self-confident people don’t let their fears get in the way of their success.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets.  “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self-confidence.”  Identify your fears, and then do what you need to do to move past them.  Action is the great antidote to fear.  It puts inertia on your side.  Once you are moving forward, you are likely to continue moving forward.  It’s the first step that is the hardest – and scariest.  If you want to beat your fears, you need to take the first step – act, and then keep on going.

That’s the career advice prompted by my time in the waiting room during Cathy’s surgery.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Lorraine Cohen is a friend of mine, and a very wise person.  The other day she sent me an email with 15 quotes about courage.  If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve you have to be courageous.  It takes courage to fight through your fears and become the career success you deserve to be.

Lorraine is offering a new program called “Awakening Your Courageous Heart.”  It begins on October 18 – tomorrow.  I urge you to go to http:www.yourcourageousheart.com and check it out.

Meanwhile, enjoy these quotes on courage…

“When we come to the edge of all the light we have and must take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe one of two things. Either we will find something solid to stand on or, we will be taught to fly.” – Patrick Overton

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” – Maya Angelou

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”- Ambrose Redmoon

“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.”- John Maxwell

“Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now but it can’t rain forever.” – Hailee
“The brave may not live forever, but the cautious don’t live at all.” – Ashley L.

“Fear and courage are brothers.” – Proverb

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose the sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong

“Courage is the knowing that something scares the hell out of you but you do it anyway because you know it will change your life forever.”– Unknown

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. Christopher Robin to Pooh” & “Whatever fortune brings, don’t be afraid of doing things.”– A. A. Milne

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.” – August Wilson

“It takes strength to be firm and it takes courage to be gentle.
It takes strength to conquer and it takes courage to surrender.
It takes strength to be certain and it takes courage to have doubt.
It takes strength to fit in and it takes courage to stand out.
It takes strength to feel a friend’s pain and it takes courage to feel your own pain.
It takes strength to endure abuse and it takes courage to stop it.
It takes strength to stand alone and it takes courage to lean on another.
It takes strength to love and it takes courage to be loved.
It takes strength to survive and it takes courage to live.” – Unknown

Courage will help you become more self confident – and the more confident you are the more likely you are to create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Tweet 45 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Look you fears in the eye and do something.”

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to confront your fear and do something about it.  Fear is normal.  Fear is common.  Fear is human.  However, fear is a career success killer.  We’re all afraid sometime.  Successful people face their fears and act.  I’ve learned a few things about fear over the years.

Fear breeds indifference.  Indifference breeds self doubt and worry.  Often, it’s easier to go with the flow and do nothing than attempt to do something of which you’re afraid.  When you say to yourself, “It’s OK, it doesn’t really matter anyway,” ask the next question – “What am I afraid of here?”  Identifying your fear is the first step in dealing with it.

Self-doubt is a form of negative self-talk.  Our words can become self-fulfilling prophecies.  Positive self-talk leads to success.  Negative self-talk leads to fear and failure.  If you catch yourself saying things like, “I can’t do this; I’ll never be successful; I’ll never get out of this mess,” then you never will.  If you say things like, “I can do this; I have what it takes to succeed; I can solve this problem,” then you will.

Worry and excessive caution will paralyze you.  Some people spend so much time worrying about the bad things that could or might happen that they never take action and actually do something to prove that good things happen too.  Worrying too much can bring you and your life and career success quest to a screeching halt.

A boat that never leaves the harbor is pretty safe.  However, it is not doing what it is meant to be doing.  The same is true for people.  If you never take a risk, you’ll never know what you are capable of accomplishing.

Here are my tips for doing battle with your fears.

1) Identify what you fear.  Figure out why you’re afraid. Is it fear of failure?  Is it fear of making the wrong decision?  Is it fear of a lost opportunity?  Are you afraid that you aren’t up to task?  Once you identify the reason behind your fear, you are well on the way to overcoming it.

2) Admit what you fear.  It’s OK to be afraid.  You wouldn’t be human if you were never afraid.  A common definition of courage is the ability to feel fear and still do what you need to do, regardless.  In 1988, I faced a very frightening decision.  Should I stay in a comfortable but ultimately unsatisfying job with a large corporation, or should I start my own business?  I was afraid of failing.  Failing meant that I would lose my savings and have to start over again, looking for a job in another corporation.  However, once I identified and admitted my fear, I was able to take the next step – acceptance.

3) Accept what you fear.  Accepting your fears is important, because it shows that you know you’re human.  Once I accepted that I was afraid of failing, I was able to start my business and succeed.  In fact, I embraced my fear of failure.  It made me work harder; it pushed me to work the long hours and learn the entrepreneurship lessons necessary to be successful as a self-employed career success coach, consultant and speaker.

4) Take action.  Action cures fear.  It is the most important of these four steps.  Do something!  The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll find it was the wrong thing to do – and you will have eliminated at least one thing from your list of possible actions.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people don’t let fear paralyze them into inaction.  They follow these four steps for dealing with the fear that can sabotage their career success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.”  Action is the antidote to fear.  In most cases, you’ll make good decisions and your fears won’t be realized.  In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined.  Successful people learn from their failures.  By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts.  You win if you make a good decision and things work out.  You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.

That’s my career advice inspired by Lorraine Cohen’s quotes on courage.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

Lorraine Cohen is a friend of mine, and a very wise person.  The other day she sent me an email with 15 quotes about courage.  If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve you have to be courageous.  It takes courage to fight through your fears and become the career success you deserve to be.

Lorraine is offering a new program called “Awakening Your Courageous Heart.”  It begins on October 18 – tomorrow.  I urge you to go to http:www.yourcourageousheart.com and check it out.

Meanwhile, enjoy these quotes on courage…

“When we come to the edge of all the light we have and must take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe one of two things. Either we will find something solid to stand on or, we will be taught to fly.” – Patrick Overton

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” – Maya Angelou

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”- Ambrose Redmoon

“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.”- John Maxwell

“Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now but it can’t rain forever.” – Hailee
“The brave may not live forever, but the cautious don’t live at all.” – Ashley L.

“Fear and courage are brothers.” – Proverb

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose the sight of the shore.” – Christopher Columbus

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong

“Courage is the knowing that something scares the hell out of you but you do it anyway because you know it will change your life forever.”– Unknown

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. Christopher Robin to Pooh” & “Whatever fortune brings, don’t be afraid of doing things.”– A. A. Milne

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.” – August Wilson

“It takes strength to be firm and it takes courage to be gentle.
It takes strength to conquer and it takes courage to surrender.
It takes strength to be certain and it takes courage to have doubt.
It takes strength to fit in and it takes courage to stand out.
It takes strength to feel a friend’s pain and it takes courage to feel your own pain.
It takes strength to endure abuse and it takes courage to stop it.
It takes strength to stand alone and it takes courage to lean on another.
It takes strength to love and it takes courage to be loved.
It takes strength to survive and it takes courage to live.” – Unknown

Courage will help you become more self confident – and the more confident you are the more likely you are to create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Tweet 45 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Look you fears in the eye and do something.”

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to confront your fear and do something about it.  Fear is normal.  Fear is common.  Fear is human.  However, fear is a career success killer.  We’re all afraid sometime.  Successful people face their fears and act.  I’ve learned a few things about fear over the years.

Fear breeds indifference.  Indifference breeds self doubt and worry.  Often, it’s easier to go with the flow and do nothing than attempt to do something of which you’re afraid.  When you say to yourself, “It’s OK, it doesn’t really matter anyway,” ask the next question – “What am I afraid of here?”  Identifying your fear is the first step in dealing with it.

Self-doubt is a form of negative self-talk.  Our words can become self-fulfilling prophecies.  Positive self-talk leads to success.  Negative self-talk leads to fear and failure.  If you catch yourself saying things like, “I can’t do this; I’ll never be successful; I’ll never get out of this mess,” then you never will.  If you say things like, “I can do this; I have what it takes to succeed; I can solve this problem,” then you will.

Worry and excessive caution will paralyze you.  Some people spend so much time worrying about the bad things that could or might happen that they never take action and actually do something to prove that good things happen too.  Worrying too much can bring you and your life and career success quest to a screeching halt.

A boat that never leaves the harbor is pretty safe.  However, it is not doing what it is meant to be doing.  The same is true for people.  If you never take a risk, you’ll never know what you are capable of accomplishing.

Here are my tips for doing battle with your fears.

1) Identify what you fear.  Figure out why you’re afraid. Is it fear of failure?  Is it fear of making the wrong decision?  Is it fear of a lost opportunity?  Are you afraid that you aren’t up to task?  Once you identify the reason behind your fear, you are well on the way to overcoming it.

2) Admit what you fear.  It’s OK to be afraid.  You wouldn’t be human if you were never afraid.  A common definition of courage is the ability to feel fear and still do what you need to do, regardless.  In 1988, I faced a very frightening decision.  Should I stay in a comfortable but ultimately unsatisfying job with a large corporation, or should I start my own business?  I was afraid of failing.  Failing meant that I would lose my savings and have to start over again, looking for a job in another corporation.  However, once I identified and admitted my fear, I was able to take the next step – acceptance.

3) Accept what you fear.  Accepting your fears is important, because it shows that you know you’re human.  Once I accepted that I was afraid of failing, I was able to start my business and succeed.  In fact, I embraced my fear of failure.  It made me work harder; it pushed me to work the long hours and learn the entrepreneurship lessons necessary to be successful as a self-employed career success coach, consultant and speaker.

4) Take action.  Action cures fear.  It is the most important of these four steps.  Do something!  The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll find it was the wrong thing to do – and you will have eliminated at least one thing from your list of possible actions.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people don’t let fear paralyze them into inaction.  They follow these four steps for dealing with the fear that can sabotage their career success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.”  Action is the antidote to fear.  In most cases, you’ll make good decisions and your fears won’t be realized.  In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined.  Successful people learn from their failures.  By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts.  You win if you make a good decision and things work out.  You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.

That’s my career advice inspired by Lorraine Cohen’s quotes on courage.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my daily thoughts on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, please download a free copy of my popular career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: I opened a membership site on September 1.  It’s called My Corporate Climb and is devoted to helping people create career success inside large corporations.  To celebrate the grand opening, I’m giving away a new career advice book I’ve written called I Want YOU…To Succeed in Your Corporate Climb.  You can find out about the membership site and get the career advice in I Want YOU… for free by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

You probably know that I send a life and career success quote to my subscribers every day.  If you aren’t receiving these quotes and would like to, all you have to do is go to http://budurl.com/STExp and sign up.  You’ll start receiving my daily life and career success quotes and I’ll send you two of my most popular career advice books: Success Tweets and Success Tweets Explained.

The career success quote I sent last Saturday (August 6, 2011) was a good one.  So much so that I’ve decided to blog about it.  It comes from Paul Sweeney and Irish writer on business – especially business in Ireland. While Mr. Sweeney may be an Irish business writer, the quote to which I’m referring has universal appeal.   Check it out…

“True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful.”

I devote several tweets in career advice book Success Tweets to fear…

Tweet 45 – “Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Look your fears in the eye and do something,”

Tweet 46 – “Four steps in dealing with fear that sabotages your career success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.”

Tweet 47 – “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.”

Tweet 48 – “Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and a confidence killer.  Act – especially when you’re afraid.”

Fear is the enemy of self-confidence and life and career success.  Self-confident people face their fears and act.  Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear.  When I find myself procrastinating, I stop and ask myself “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”
Usually, the answer is on the 12 most common fears on the list below.  Which of these stop you from moving forward?  What are you doing about them?

1. Fear of failure – This type of fear has its roots in the misconception that everything you do has to be 100% successful.
2. Fear of success – This type of fear is based on the idea that success is likely to mean more responsibility and attention, coupled with pressure to continue to perform at a high level.
3. Fear of being judged – This type of fear comes from the need for approval that most people develop in childhood.
4. Fear of emotional pain – This type of fear is rooted in wanting to avoid potential negative consequences of your actions.
5. Fear of embarrassment – This type of fear is a result of empowering others to judge you when you demonstrate that you’re only human by making mistakes and having lapses of judgment.
6. Fear of being abandoned or being alone – This type of fear is related to rejection and low self-esteem.
7. Fear of rejection – This type of fear comes from personalizing what others do and say.
8. Fear of expressing your true feelings – This type of fear holds you back from engaging in open, honest dialogue with the people in your life.
9. Fear of intimacy – This type of fear manifests itself by an unwillingness to let others get too close, lest they discover the “real you.”
10. Fear of the unknown – This type of fear manifests itself as needless worry about all of the bad things that could happen if you decide to make a change in your life.
11. Fear of loss – This type of fear is related to the potential pain associated with no longer having something or someone of emotional significance to you.
12. Fear of death – The ultimate fear of the unknown.  What will happen once our spirits leave our bodies?

By identifying your fear, you are more than half way to conquering it.  Action is the antidote to fear. In most cases, you’ll act wisely and your fears won’t be realized.  In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined.  Successful people learn from their failures.  By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts.  You win if you make a good decision and things work out.  You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people are self-confident.  Self-confident people face their fears and act.  They follow the career advice in Tweets 45, 46, 47 and 48 in Success Tweets.  “Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self-confident people face their fears and act.  Look your fears in the eye and do something.” (45)  “Four steps in dealing with fear that sabotages your career success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.” (46) “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.” (47) “Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and a confidence killer.  Act – especially when you’re afraid.”  (48)  Procrastination really is the physical manifestation of fear.  When you find yourself procrastinating, figure out what scares you about the situation.  Is it fear of failure?  Is it fear of success? Is it fear of rejection?  Is it fear of being embarrassed?  Is it fear of the unknown?  Once you’ve figured out why you are afraid, do three things: admit your fear to yourself; embrace your fear; take action.  Action is the antidote to fear and a career success builder.

That’s my career advice on dealing with the fears that can sabotage your self-confidence and career success.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

You probably know that I send a life and career success quote to my subscribers every day.  If you aren’t receiving these quotes and would like to, all you have to do is go to http://budurl.com/STExp and sign up.  You’ll start receiving my daily life and career success quotes and I’ll send you two of my most popular career advice books: Success Tweets and Success Tweets Explained.

The career success quote I sent last Saturday (August 6, 2011) was a good one.  So much so that I’ve decided to blog about it.  It comes from Paul Sweeney and Irish writer on business – especially business in Ireland. While Mr. Sweeney may be an Irish business writer, the quote to which I’m referring has universal appeal.   Check it out…

“True success is overcoming the fear of being unsuccessful.”

I devote several tweets in career advice book Success Tweets to fear…

Tweet 45 – “Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self confident people face their fears and act.  Look your fears in the eye and do something,”

Tweet 46 – “Four steps in dealing with fear that sabotages your career success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.”

Tweet 47 – “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.”

Tweet 48 – “Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and a confidence killer.  Act – especially when you’re afraid.”

Fear is the enemy of self-confidence and life and career success.  Self-confident people face their fears and act.  Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear.  When I find myself procrastinating, I stop and ask myself “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”
Usually, the answer is on the 12 most common fears on the list below.  Which of these stop you from moving forward?  What are you doing about them?

1. Fear of failure – This type of fear has its roots in the misconception that everything you do has to be 100% successful.
2. Fear of success – This type of fear is based on the idea that success is likely to mean more responsibility and attention, coupled with pressure to continue to perform at a high level.
3. Fear of being judged – This type of fear comes from the need for approval that most people develop in childhood.
4. Fear of emotional pain – This type of fear is rooted in wanting to avoid potential negative consequences of your actions.
5. Fear of embarrassment – This type of fear is a result of empowering others to judge you when you demonstrate that you’re only human by making mistakes and having lapses of judgment.
6. Fear of being abandoned or being alone – This type of fear is related to rejection and low self-esteem.
7. Fear of rejection – This type of fear comes from personalizing what others do and say.
8. Fear of expressing your true feelings – This type of fear holds you back from engaging in open, honest dialogue with the people in your life.
9. Fear of intimacy – This type of fear manifests itself by an unwillingness to let others get too close, lest they discover the “real you.”
10. Fear of the unknown – This type of fear manifests itself as needless worry about all of the bad things that could happen if you decide to make a change in your life.
11. Fear of loss – This type of fear is related to the potential pain associated with no longer having something or someone of emotional significance to you.
12. Fear of death – The ultimate fear of the unknown.  What will happen once our spirits leave our bodies?

By identifying your fear, you are more than half way to conquering it.  Action is the antidote to fear. In most cases, you’ll act wisely and your fears won’t be realized.  In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined.  Successful people learn from their failures.  By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts.  You win if you make a good decision and things work out.  You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.

The career success coach point here is simple common sense.  Successful people are self-confident.  Self-confident people face their fears and act.  They follow the career advice in Tweets 45, 46, 47 and 48 in Success Tweets.  “Everyone is afraid sometime.  Self-confident people face their fears and act.  Look your fears in the eye and do something.” (45)  “Four steps in dealing with fear that sabotages your career success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.” (46) “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.” (47) “Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and a confidence killer.  Act – especially when you’re afraid.”  (48)  Procrastination really is the physical manifestation of fear.  When you find yourself procrastinating, figure out what scares you about the situation.  Is it fear of failure?  Is it fear of success? Is it fear of rejection?  Is it fear of being embarrassed?  Is it fear of the unknown?  Once you’ve figured out why you are afraid, do three things: admit your fear to yourself; embrace your fear; take action.  Action is the antidote to fear and a career success builder.

That’s my career advice on dealing with the fears that can sabotage your self-confidence and career success.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, you can download a free copy of my latest career success book Success Tweets Explained.  It’s a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

I’m not a big one for jargon, so when I received this guest post from Raine Parker on Hedonic Treadmill Theory, I was tempted to ignore it.  However, it actually contains some great career advice about how to create your life and career success by conquering your fears by taking action. 

I devoted four tweets in my latest career success book Success Tweets to action.  Tweet 48 sums up my thoughts on action.  “Procrastination is the physical manifestation of fear and is a confidence killer.  Act: especially when you’re afraid.”

Raine Parker says that Hedonic Treadmill Theory can help you overcome procrastination and take actions that can help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Check it out…

Understanding Hedonic Treadmill Theory for Career Success

Recently, Bud Bilanch the Career Success Coach, posted an article describing different types of fear and how we can overcome these hesitation demons to take action and go for what we want.

Personally, I’ve battled with fear constantly in my career decisions. And I still do. While it is a very normal part of being human, fear can have an incredibly insidious effect on your future career success.

The biggest and perhaps most common fear that has plagued me is fear of making the wrong decision. Before, whenever I’ve pondered any decision, whether it’s personal or professional, I would vacillate for days, weeks, even months. Even trips to the grocery store became exercises in tortured indecision.

Then I read about the theory of the hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation. Understanding the implications of this theory practically cleared my indecision-itis overnight.

Hedonic treadmill theory asserts that despite negative or positive changes in our lives, no matter how drastic, our overall level of satisfaction stays constant throughout our lives.

In other words, a positive change will cause a momentary jump in our happiness, but we eventually adapt and return to our previous neutral mood state. The same thing goes for negative changes. No matter how bad things get, we will adjust. Although research still continues on the topic, scientists agree that happiness is mostly determined by our natural temperaments, and external factors have a minimal, short-lived impact on our overall well-being.

This theory has astounding implications for career success. Many of us go through life feeling stuck fearing change because of our innate trepidation about the future. We wonder if applying for a new job bring us happiness? Will moving to a new city, relocating and disrupting our lives in the process, be worth it?

According to hedonic adaptation no matter what decision we make, the risk is minimal. If it’s the “right” decision, then we’ll experience an increase in happiness, after which we will return to our normal selves. If it’s the wrong decision, things may be unpleasant for a little while, but our happiness dials will balance out.

One more conclusion I’ve drawn from hedonic treadmill theory is that constantly striving for changes, trying new things by stepping out of our imprisoning comfort zones, is what drives overall satisfaction.

If this is the case, career success becomes not an end goal, but a process that goes forward only if we act. Action is everything. I know you’ve heard this before.  But now, science has proven the age-old saying–you literally have nothing to lose.

Raine makes some interesting career success points here.  Fear is a great confidence and career success killer.  Tweet 47 in Success Tweets says, “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence and career success.”

Elbert Hubbard, the author of “A Message to Garcia”  (http://budbilanich.com/garcia) one of the best essays on personal responsibility ever written, makes a great point about facing your fears and taking action.

“The greatest mistake you can make is continually fearing that you will make one.”

Read that again.  Those 14 words are powerful!  They are some fundamental career advice.

If you let your fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action, you will never take any action and your fear will ruin your life and any chance of creating the career success you want and deserve.

In 1988 I was ready to start my career success coach and speaking business.  I was afraid.  I was worried that I wouldn’t succeed.   I had always worked for large companies.   I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what to do to run a successful career success coach business.  Nevertheless, I looked my fear in the eye, quit my job and moved forward.  Over 20 years later, I’m still at it.  My fears were unfounded – but they were real.  I’m glad I faced them and acted.

Fear is persistent.  It doesn’t go away.  It will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike.  If you let it get the best of you, you’ll never move forward and create true career success.
 
Fear most often manifests itself in procrastination.  When I find myself procrastinating, I always ask myself, “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”  Identifying what I fear always help me defeat it.  Once I identify what I am afraid of, I can take positive steps to move forward through my fear and on to my career success.

Make a list of your doubts and fears.  Decide what you can do to overcome them.  Then act.  Take at least one positive action – not matter how small — every day to overcome your doubts and fears.  Even if these actions don’t work out as well as you hope, you will be on the road to overcoming your fears and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Remember procrastination feeds fear; and action cures it.  The choice is up to you.  I choose action.  My best career advice says you should too.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.   Self confident people don’t let their fears get in the way of their career success.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets.  “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyways.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.”  Identify your fears, and then do what you need to do to move past them.  Action is the great antidote to fear.  It puts inertia on your side.  Once you are moving forward, you are likely to continue moving forward.  It’s the first step that is the hardest – and scariest.  The simple common sense career success advice on fear is simple.  If you want to beat your fears, you need to take the first step — act, and then keep on going.

That’s my take on dealing with your fears and the career advice embodied in Hedonic Treadmill Theory as explained by Raine Parker who writes on topics associated with online accounting degrees.  If you want to get in touch with her to discuss Hedonic Treadmill Theory send her an email at raine.parker6@gmail.com.  What’s your take on fear andor Hedonic Treadmill Theory?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading my musings on life and career success. 

Bud

As usual, the January 2011 issue of SUCCESS Magazine has some great life and career success advice.  Are you a subscriber?  If not, I suggest you subscribe to this great print mag as soon as you finish reading this post.

In an article entitled “The 6 Deadly Fears of Entrepreneurship” Beth Douglass Silcox lists six fears common to entrepreneurs.  I think these six fears apply to everyone – not just entrepreneurs.  Take a look…

• Fear of Failure
• Fear of Inadequacy
• Fear of Risks
• Fear of Financial Insecurity
• Fear of What Others Will Think
• Fear of Growth

Before we go on, let me say some things about fear.  Fear is normal.  Fear is common.  Fear is human.  And fear is a career success killer. 

We’re all afraid sometime.  Successful people face their fears and act.  I’ve learned a few things about fear over the years.  Fear breeds indifference.  Indifference breeds self doubt and worry. Often, it’s easier to go with the flow and do nothing than attempt to do something of which you’re afraid.  When you say to yourself “It’s OK, it doesn’t really matter anyway,” ask the next question – “What am I afraid of here?”  Identifying your fear is the first step in dealing with it.

Self doubt is a form of negative self talk. Our words can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Positive self talk leads to success.  Negative self talk leads to fear and failure.

If you catch yourself saying things like “I can’t do this; I’ll never be successful; I’ll never get out of this mess,” then you never will. 

If you say things like “I can do this; I have what it takes to succeed; I can solve this problem,” then you will.

Worry and excessive caution will paralyze you and stop your quest for career success dead in its tracks. Some people spend so much time worrying about the bad things that could or might happen that they never take action and actually do something to prove that good things happen too. Worrying too much can bring you and your life to a screeching halt.

A boat that never leaves the harbor is pretty safe. However, it is not doing what it is meant to be doing. The same is true for people. If you never take a risk, you’ll never know what you are capable of accomplishing.

Fear is a confidence and career success killer.  Tweet 46 in Success Tweets, my latest career advice book lists four steps for dealing with the fears that can sabotage your life and career success:

1. Identify it.
2. Admit it.
3. Accept it.
4. Do something about it.

Let’s look at how you can use these four steps to beat the fear that is holding you back from achieving the life and career success you want and deserve.

1. Identify what you fear.  Figure out why you’re afraid. Is it fear of failure?  Is it fear of inadequacy?  Is it fear of risks?  Is it fear of financial insecurity?  Is it fear of what others will think?  Is it fear of growth? Is it fear of making the wrong decision?  Is it fear of a lost opportunity?  Are you afraid that you aren’t up to task?  Once you identify the reason behind your fear, you are well on the way to overcoming it.
2. Admit what you fear.  It’s OK to be afraid. You wouldn’t be human if you were never afraid. A common definition of courage is the ability to feel fear and still do what you need to do regardless. In 1988, I faced a very frightening decision. Should I stay in a comfortable but ultimately unsatisfying job with a large corporation, or should I start my own business?  I was afraid of failing.  Failing would mean that I would lose my savings and have to start over again, looking for a job in another corporation.  However, once I identified and admitted my fear, I was able to take the next step – acceptance.
3. Accept what you fear.  Accepting your fear is important, because it shows that you know you’re human.  Once I accepted that I was afraid of failing, I was able to start my business and succeed.  In fact, I embraced my fear of failure. It made me work harder; it pushed me to work the long hours and learn the entrepreneurship lessons necessary to be successful as a self employed career success coach, consultant and speaker.
4. Take action.  Action cures fear.  It is the most important of these four steps. Do something! The worst thing that can happen is that you’ll find it was the wrong thing to do – and you will have eliminated at least one thing from your list of possible actions.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people don’t let fear sabotage their self confidence and career success.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 46 in Success Tweets.  “Four steps for dealing with fear that can sabotage your success: identify it, admit it, accept it, do something about it.” 

Action is the antidote to fear. In most cases, you’ll make good decisions and your fears won’t be realized.  In the cases when you choose poorly, you’ll find that failure isn’t as catastrophic as you imagined.  Successful people learn from their failures.  By taking action on your fears, you win on both counts. You win if you make a good decision and things work out.  You even win if you make a bad decision and things go poorly, because you have an opportunity to learn from your decision and the subsequent problems you faced.

That’s my career advice on dealing with the fears that can sabotage your career success.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading – and don’t forget these four steps the next time you find fear interfering with your life and career success.

Bud

I’m still writing about the ideas in my new career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I have a little less than 100 more blog posts to go to further explain each of the tweets in Success Tweets.  When I’m finished, you’ll have an in depth discussion on each of the 141 tweets in Success Tweets.  You can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.  Hard copies of the book are available on Amazon.com and your local bookstore.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 47…

Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyways.  That the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.

I subscribe to Sharon Melnick’s online newsletter.  In a recent post, she made several interesting points about confidence.

Confidence will help you be flexible.  You will consider all alternatives and options.

Confidence will help you follow through on ideas that you might otherwise talk yourself out of.

Confidence will help you be persistent – and hold on you your vision for your life.

She’s right.  Confidence is the foundation of all success.  Without it, you will have a difficult time creating the life and career success you want and deserve.  To build your self confidence, you have to be optimistic, face your fears and act, and surround yourself with positive people.

Fear is a confidence and career success killer.  Elbert Hubbard, the author of “A Message to Garcia” (http://budbilanich.com/garcia) one of the best essays on personal responsibility ever written, has some great things to say about facing your fears.

“The greatest mistake you can make is continually fearing that you will make one.”

Read that again.  Those 14 words are powerful!  They are some fundamental career advice.

If you let your fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action, you will never take any action.  Your fear will ruin and any chance of creating the career success you want and deserve.

In 1988 I was ready to start my career success coach and speaking business.  I was afraid.  I was worried that I wouldn’t succeed.   I had always worked for large companies.   I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what to do to run a successful career success coach business. 

Nevertheless, I looked my fear in the eye, quit my job and moved forward.  22 years later, I’m still at it.  My fears were unfounded – but at the time, they were real and could have held me back.  I’m glad I faced them and acted.

Fear is persistent.  It doesn’t go away.  It will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike.  If you let it get the best of you, you’ll never move forward nor create the life and career success you want and deserve.

Fear often manifests itself in procrastination.  When I find myself procrastinating, I always ask myself, “What are you afraid of here, Bud?”  Identifying what I fear always help me defeat it.  Once I identify what I am afraid of, I can take positive steps to move forward  — to get past my fear and on to career success.

Make a list of your doubts and fears.  Decide what you can do to overcome them.  Then act.  Take at least one positive action – no matter how small — every day to overcome your doubts and fears.  Even if these actions don’t work out as well as you hope, you will be on the road to overcoming your fears and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Remember – procrastination feeds fear; action cures it.  The choice is up to you.  I choose action.  My best career advice says you should too.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.   Self confident people don’t let their fears get in the way of their success.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets.  “Act.  Feel the fear and do it anyway.  That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.”  Identify your fears, and then do what you need to do to move past them.  Action is the great antidote to fear.  It puts inertia on your side.  Once you are moving forward, you are likely to continue moving forward.  It’s the first step that is the hardest – and scariest.  If you want to beat your fears, you need to take the first step — act, and then keep on going.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets; and on fear and self confidence.  What’s yours?  Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.  Also, please share your personal stories of triumph over fear.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud