I think there are two things that help push past fear. Number one, we have to be really clear about why we’re doing it and we have to have a deep desire to do whatever the thing is that we’re afraid to do. So we have to be motivated in some way. And it can’t be scarcity-based, it can’t be fear-based. It really has to be something bigger and better than that.
And number two, we have to find a way to push past the initial fear. So for some of you, it’s an accountability buddy. For some of you, it is making a commitment to a business coach or a business partner. For others of you, it may be a significant milestone: the 25th anniversary of your business, your 50th birthday, whatever it may be.
But when we are really clear about why we want to do it and we have motivation behind that is abundance-based and opportunity or experience-based and we hold ourselves accountable either by ourselves or oftentimes with a partner of some kind, somebody we’re going to do something with or somebody we’ve made a commitment to do something, all of a sudden, then we can push past that fear.
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Hey everybody, Drew McLellan here
from Agency Management Institute,
this week coming to you from Lisbon, Portugal.
I speak even less Portuguese than I do French
so I had to do that in English.
You know, I've been thinking a lot this week
about fear and how it is such an inhibitor
to us doing our best work
or the things that mean the most to us,
or things that we really have a desire in our heart
but haven't quite found the impetus to move forward.
And 2023 has been a year, I think,
with a lot of fear for agency owners.
I think, biz dev is slow,
hiring folks is still challenging.
And so I'm seeing a lot of agency owners
come to decisions in a place of fear.
And you know,
what I believe and what I have discovered
is that most things that we're afraid of,
by the time we get through that gate
and we actually do the thing that we're afraid to do,
what we discover is that the fear was paralyzing
but the thing we were afraid to do
or to not do or to change
actually wasn't that big a deal.
So I've always thought that tattoos were cool,
but I A) didn't have the motivation,
there was nothing that was so important to me
that I want to put on my body permanently;
and B) I hate needles.
About a year ago,
it's a long story which I won't get into the video,
but I had some motivation
to get a tattoo with my daughter.
And all of a sudden,
the opportunity to have that experience with her,
plus the meaning behind the tattoo that I chose,
really ended up, for me, helping me push past the fear
and have the experience,
which turns out didn't hurt hardly at all.
But my point is this:
that I think there are two things
that help push past fear.
Number one,
we have to be really clear about why we're doing it
and we have to have a deep desire
to do whatever the thing is that we're afraid to do.
So we have to be motivated in some way.
And it can't be scarcity-based,
it can't be fear-based.
It really has to be something bigger
and better than that.
And number two,
we have to find a way to push past the initial fear.
So for some of you, it's an accountability buddy.
For some of you, it is making commitment
to a business coach or a business partner.
For others of you, it may be a significant milestone:
the 25th anniversary of your business,
your 50th birthday,
whatever it may be.
But when we are really clear
about why we want to do it
and we have motivation behind that
that is abundance-based
and opportunity or experience-based
and we hold ourselves accountable
either by ourselves
or oftentimes with a partner of some kind,
somebody we're going to do something with
or somebody we've made a commitment to do something,
all of a sudden, then we can push past that fear.
And I will tell you, I won't do it in this video,
but I can list 5 or 10 agency owners
that have done some really hard things
that they were afraid of doing
for the last year or two.
In some cases, it was letting go of a toxic employee.
In other case, it was having
a really candid conversation with a client
who wasn't treating employees well.
But at the end of the day,
for all of them, what happened is
when they were on the other side of the fear,
that all of a sudden,
they look back on what they were afraid of
and they were like, "You know what?
It just wasn't that big of a deal."
And I know that that's been my experience as well.
So whatever you're afraid of,
whatever the thing that scares you the most
or the thing that you toss and turn about
as you think about it
or that gives you a little heartburn
when you think about it,
I want you to see if you can find clear motivation,
a really good reason,
an abundance-based reason of why you should do it;
and number two,
an accountability buddy or accountability within yourself
to get it done by a certain date.
And then I want you to face that fear.
Because honestly,
I think one of the ways we go into '24 stronger and better
is getting a couple things off our plate in '23
that have been kind of lingering
and we've been afraid to tackle them.
So let's make the back half of '23
our commitment to each other and to ourselves,
that we are going to tackle
some things that we're afraid of
and get them out of the way
before the start of the new year.
Okay?
Face that fear.
Tackle that fear.
Move past that fear.
I think you're going to be surprised
at how good you feel
and how great the results are.
All right?
I'll see you next week!
