JUST ONE THING
From Fear to Success
Episode 116
With Rick White, 180BIZ
We've been talking about the different zones in your business lately. The comfort zone is one of them. Why is the comfort zone so appealing? Because there's a wall around your comfort zone. This is called the fear zone. This is what is keeping you stuck from becoming the shop that you want to become. It's preventing you from stepping out and doing some pretty amazing things because you're afraid of failing. You're afraid of being laughed at. You'll be afraid of being judged. You're afraid of falling on your face.
Fear can stand for FORGET EVERYTHING AND RUN, or it can stand for FALSE EVIDENCE APPEARING REAL. It's completely up to you.
The wall of fear will grow bigger and bigger and thicker and thicker the more you feed it. My wife and I were in Puerto Rico visiting a few forts that used to guard the island. And their walls were amazingly thick. Some had walls that were 20 feet thick. That was to protect them from cannonballs.
Well, we build a wall thicker and thicker and thicker. We think it's protecting us, but it's not. Fear grows with time and attention. The more time you give that fear to think about it and ponder it, and whether or not it's the right thing to do or not, that's what will make your wall grow. And the more time you let go, that fear wall will get even thicker.
But if you walk up to it that wall, you’ll realize it's an illusion. You will see that it's nothing more than a curtain. You’ll see that it’s something that you can just push aside and walk right through.
Is it uncomfortable on the other side? Yes.
Will you fall? Yes.
But that's part of getting better. Don't let that stop you. It's more important for me to get to the end of my life realizing that I did everything that I could. Regret doesn't come from doing something and failing. Regret comes from not doing it and wishing you had. That's where regret comes from. Realizing I could have done this better. I don’t want to die rusted out. I want to die worn out. I want to die when there's nothing left inside this shell to give others. That's when it's time for me to go. I don't want to die rusted out; I want to die worn out. Rusted out means all my potential got stuck. It means that everything was kept inside, and I never let it go. And because of that, all the gifts I was meant to give, the dreams that I had, they die with me. That's regret.
Fear is normal in life. It's an indicator. It tells you what to pay attention to. For example, if you're thinking about adding a tech, you might think, “What if business slows down? What if I don’t have enough work for them?” That’s fear. Fear is saying, “Hey, do you have a plan?” But we don't listen that way. We let fear take over. Instead of letting fear stay where it should be, which is a gauge on your dashboard in your car of life, you let fear drive. Fear is never supposed to drive. It's an indicator for you to identify what’s missing.
So, imagine there's a little 12-year-old self inside of you, scared about what you're about to do. What if we fail? What if people laugh? What if we're not accepted? What if we're successful and we don't have friends anymore? You may think of all these different things. And all you are supposed to do with that fear is have a plan.
Think about what you are worried about. It could be not enough car count. I might give myself a little hug and I'll say, “Look, I understand why you're afraid. That is something to be afraid of. Here's what I've got planned. Up my marketing. Do more exit scheduling. Do a better job on the inspections. We have more staff now and we're going to be okay.” Nothing is fatal, but fear makes it feel that way.
You will never completely conquer fear. Fear is a constant companion. You will never win the war with fear, but you can win the daily battles. You can win the moment-by-moment battles.
There's a great movie with Matt Damon. It was called “We Bought a Zoo.” He said that your life is defined by 20 seconds of absolute courage. And courage is stepping forward afraid. You must take that first step forward. The next one will be a little easier. We generally want to see the whole stairway before we go. We want to know for sure that it will work. We want to know that the first time we do something, it will be great. But things don’t tend to work that way. As Martin Luther King said, “You don't need to see the stairway to take the next step.” And that's all we need. Think about it like driving at night. During the day. I can see where I'm going, but at night I can only see as far as the headlights let me. But that’s okay because the headlights are moving with me.
It's the same thing with fear. Fear is going to be a constant companion. Embrace it. Don't think that fear is bad. Fear is merely an indicator. It’s like my wife and me. I’m a “ready, fire, aim” kind of guy. I'm on the edge of a cliff ready to jump. All the while my wife is grabbing the back of my shirt and saying, “Look before you leap. I want to jump right in and figure it out as I go. But fear gives you a chance to pause and ask, “Are you sure? Is this really what you want?”
If what you want is powerful enough, if why is powerful enough, the fear wall will be merely a curtain. If you're” why you want that goal” is powerful enough, the how doesn’t matter. It will be more powerful than fear and easily pushed aside. Each time you conquer fear, it adds strength to your character and makes you stronger. It gives you the power and momentum and motivation to go through the next fear.
But unrealistic expectations will kill your momentum. Don't do that. Expect to fall. Expect to suck. When you do something new, you don't go from doing it once to doing it amazing. It's like picking up a golf club for the first time one day and golfing like Tiger Woods the next day. It doesn't happen that way. So let go of the expectations of perfection. Let go of the expectations of doing it right the first time. Just do it and learn and then do it better and learn and then do it even better and learn. Before you know it, you will be a master. As you push through that fear and overcome it, your comfort zone grows. What scared you before doesn't scare you anymore. And it's amazing what that feels like.
For years, Brenda was trying to get me in front of the camera and do videos. I resisted and did not want to do them. I sound funny. I don't know what to do. And now I'm doing it all the time. And it doesn't even phase me anymore. I want to do a great job. I do get a little nervous each time because I want my message to matter.
Push through that fear because everything you want out of life, that's where it is. It's on the other side of that fear. So, push through something that scares you today.
Take care. Stay safe, have fun, and go make some money.
