Why You Should Give Fear a Voice (But Not a Vote)

There is a perception in the world that the most successful and highest achieving people in the world feel no fear.  They are seen as fearless warriors who go through any and all obstacles regardless of how difficult or potentially dangerous the situations they face.  When asked, however, these people will freely admit that they feel fear regularly. 

Even George Burns Felt Fear

The legendary comedian George Burns had a career that spanned almost 95 years and he admitted to having stage fright every performance!  So, what then is the secret to how achievers keep going, even in the face of fear?

Feel It and Act Anyways

It is not to ignore fear or to even pretend that it is not real.  The real technique that they use is to feel fear and act anyways.  When speaking to these high-fliers, they will tell you that even though they feel fear, they have trained themselves to act in spite of it.  They rely on the training they have done to help them achieve their goals.  They also visualize the best result that they would like to achieve and then let that training take over. 

That is not to say that fear does not have a place in the lives of successful people.  Fear can be a powerful indicator that something is wrong or that something will not work.  Therefore, fear is always given a “voice”.  The situation that is causing fear should be examined to see if fear’s voice is valid, which it very well could be.

Validate the Fear

In the case of a potentially dangerous situation, fear’s voice could be very loud and valid.  If a person is walking alone at night in a dangerous area and fears going into a dark alley, there is the very real possibility of danger that should not be ignored.

In the case of public speaking, however, this fear may be less about danger and more about the fear of actually speaking in front of people.  Unless there is an actual danger to the speaker, relying on speaking, gesturing and delivery training will be very helpful to get past the fear.

Fear Gets a Voice

In both of these cases, fear gets a voice:  it is examined for validity and a decision is made.  In the case of the dark alley, the voice is strong and clear:  there is real danger that should be avoided and another course should be taken.  In the case of a public performance, the fear is a very real phobia that countless people have of speaking or being in front of a large group, rather than any danger.

No Vote!

The one thing that achievers are clear on is that fear does not get a vote.  In other words, the idea of fear making us examine our choices to ensure that we are safe is a valid use of fear; irrationally using fear to stop us from doing things without substantiating it however, is not valid.  We may fear trying something new like a sport, but if we receive training and do it safely, we may find that our fears were not founded. 

That is not to say that fear should be ridiculed; it is part of our survival mechanism and should be considered, just not used as a blanket reason to stop doing something or to even start it.

Fear, therefore gets a voice, but not a vote.