What Is That Thing?
“Anytime I see something screech across a room and latch onto someone’s neck, and the guy screams and tries to get it off, I have to laugh, because what is that thing.” – Jack Handey
Harry Potter may be fictional, but if he were real I’d try my best to get his story into our quaint little Muggle book. There is one small attribute of his character that represents an enormous and liberating truth about the battle against fear.
Voldemort, the villain of the Harry Potter series, is such a terrifying and dark figure that the vast majority of the wizarding population can’t even bring themselves to say his name. They call him “You-Know-Who” out of fear of wetting themselves, annihilation at the hands of the Dark Lord himself, or both. Harry is one of the few characters in the books brave enough to say “Voldemort”, and that’s not just because being afraid to say a word is a ridiculous concept. Harry knows that to fear the name is to fear the being, and he figures, how can you fight something you can’t talk about?
It’s no coincidence that many of Fear.less’s contributors are writers and speakers. Pema Chödrön, Seth Godin and Julia Cameron are all prolific authors. Benjamin and Rosamund Zander have cranked out a book. William Ury has written a few. Immaculée Ilibigiza’s is great. Seth, Danielle LaPorte, Chris Guillebeau and others have popular blogs. The Zanders, Karen Armstrong, and Jacqueline Novogratz have all given TED talks. The list goes on. These are successful people who know how to get messages across. Their ability to articulate their fears is not only what makes Fear.less possible but also what helped them overcome their own personal Voldemorts.
A few contributors (I won’t spoil which ones) present the idea of taking a good look in the mirror to figure out what exactly you’re afraid of. Identifying, classifying, pinpointing the nature of their fears play a big role in their stories. These people know that if something has a name, it exists. If it exists, it can be destroyed. With talking, writing and fleshing out comes information and knowledge, and knowledge is power. There’s a reason “the truth will set you free” is such a popular Bible passage.
Other contributors go on about support systems or transparency which are neat entrepreneurial jargon words for discussing your concerns with others. In general, things get less scary when everyone knows a lot about them, and that’s sort of the point of Fear.less in a nutshell.
In commemoration of seeing your fears in your reflection, today’s Fear.less editing soundtrack sample is Nine Inch Nails – Right Where It Belongs. It also features the notion of your world being all in your head, another theme among various Fear.less contributors. And I didn’t give one for the previous post on Seth Godin, so here: A Perfect Circle – Rose, a great song about rising up from the paralysis of fear.
What is that thing? Find out, and you will be empowered.
Seth Godin… Transforms!!
Seth Godin did a lot more than just contribute to fear.less. The whole project materialized in the first place as a result of his Alternative MBA program, which brought together a tight platoon of amazing, innovative people, two of whom are the creators of fear.less. Since the fear.less team is working under Seth, and I am working under them as editor, Seth Godin is basically my grand-boss.
Seth is a marketing master, brimming with business know-how, which he uses to fill many best-selling books. I read one. It was called Tribes, and it was delightful. His blog is read by more people than you will probably ever meet in your entire life. The man is certainly on top of things.
What sort of words pop into your head when you think of salesmen and entrepreneurs like Seth? “Shrewd”? Perhaps “calculating”? If Seth is the Optimus Prime of marketing, he must be a robot in disguise, yes? With his bald head and knowing smile, he is the poster boy for icy composure. He is like Agent 47 from Hitman, except for marketing. There’s no way this ultra-calm and collected man feels fear, right?
Wrong!
It turns out Seth is cool exactly because he isn’t cold. Seth may be the most panicked entrepreneur in fear.less, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Soon, you will get to read how Seth transforms from a guy armed with only a newsletter, an idea about lavender livestock and a severe case of failurephobia, into the radiant paragon of marketing wisdom leering at you above.
I think that’s pretty inspiring, Mr. Godin, even if you can’t morph into a truck.
The Profound Effects of Sound Effects
I don’t want to spend every single blog post lauding contributor after contributor, or there wouldn’t be any surprises left by the time the book came out. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t absolutely love to discuss fear and tools for dealing with it with you, though. In the future, watch this space because the Fear.less team is on the hunt for resources, articles, or anything at all that involves overcoming fear. If you can help us along, that would be awesome. Our contact information is up top.
Years ago a friend who was much older than me gave me the following advice:
Always cut the deck if it ups your odds.
Not much of a card player, I was confused. Basically it means if you are struggling with adversity, introduce a random element and see what happens because you have nothing to lose. Many times, a sudden and unexpected action or development can work wonders against your fear. I’ll give you a humble example.
A few months ago my roommates were sprawled on their couches, wallowing in misery and dread over upcoming final exams. It was an almost constant torrent of basketcased dismay – about illogical grading practices, the impossibility of the material, everything. It was as if a C in aeronautics translated to an F in life.
I wasn’t immune to the malaise, but I was getting tired of it. I unplugged my headphones and turned up my volume, and after one roommate’s particularly incensed mini-rant, I fired off a clearly misapplied Instant Rimshot.
The positive effect was immediate and stunning. After we stopped giggling like hyenas, we realized what we had learned – that just because circumstances are outside your control, the forces that do have control are not necessarily malevolent. The Instant Rimshot represents a theme that is brought up over and over again in Fear.less – looking at your situation from a different perspective (in this case humorous).
Fear.less contributor Danielle LaPorte wrote an amazing blog post on how to be depressed (certainly a common partner of fear), and one of the tips involves casting your feelings in an absurd light by playing dramatic music, flailing your arms and declaring your plight. I’ve confirmed that moaning “I’m so depressed!” and then playing the sad trombone works equally well.
Sometimes all you need to reframe your perspective is to shake things up a little, and sometimes all you need to shake things up a little is a goofy sound clip. I stated above that we at Fear.less are being vigilant for useful fear-related material, but vigilance can also help you catch something that can turn everything around, if nowhere else, at least in your mind and heart.
Today’s fear-related song of the day is Morcheeba – Fear and Love. Love – now there’s something that comes up a few times in Fear.less.
Scott Belsky Keeps the Ship Afloat
Scott Belsky had big ideas and big fears to go with them.
His struggle is standard enough entrepreneurial fare: Even if you can convince your colleagues to abandon a life of stability to help you realize your vision, how do you then cope with being responsible for their careers?
Scott aimed to develop a business out of putting inventive, visionary people in touch. You will learn how that pans out when you read Fear.less, but I’d like to share with you a brief sentence in his story that I noticed while editing it. It may be just succinct and punchy enough to let you know exactly what you need to do in your own life, right now.
My burdens, it seemed, were a result of isolation.
Scott established an atmosphere of transparency with his team to facilitate the discussion of concerns, like a whole bunch of Casper the Friendly Ghosts, and his business is better for it. Think about that the next time someone asks what’s wrong and you murmur “nothing” and shuffle away.
Fear.less is a special project that commands special background music when I am editing it. In commemoration of Scott’s inspiring discovery of the merits of openness, today’s fear-related song of the day is Isolation by Joy Division. Fear is specifically mentioned in the first line. Enjoy, and know that if you want to keep your ship afloat, you have to talk to the crew.