A friend of mine sent out a newsletter the other day where he coined 2009 as "The Year of No Fear!"
He discusses that there are so many stumbling blocks in life, and that we're bombarded with news about them every day, including things like the global financial crisis, human strife and war. He argues that we can get bogged down in all the bad news and fear and allow that to overtake our emotional and cognitive states, or we can choose to live without fear.
I agree. It can actually be a simple choice like that.
Today's questions and exercises are focused on assisting you to explore that choice for yourself.
Coaching Exercises
1. Create a list of what you're afraid of for 2009 - anything at all, even the small stuff. Then go through the list and write next to each fear what you think the benefit is of keeping that fear alive for 2009.
2. Next, go through the list and measure on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest) to what level you feel the fear is a "real threat" to you (10) or not necessarily being able to have any real impact on you at all (1). Evaluate each fear. You may find along the way that some of the fears are not real threats at all and therefore could be discarded.
3. Finally, consider the "benefits" you thought you might achieve from the fear, compare it against the "real threat factor" of the fear and determine if you have an unmet need somewhere that could actually be fulfilled elsewhere. For example, if the benefit of a fear was that you don't have to take any risky action yourself which might put you in harm's way such as feeling uncomfortable if you fail at something...and therefore feel safe to some extent...but you then realise the actual risk of the fear eventuating is fairly low, then possibly you've identified a need to feel "safe" in general. Now explore how else you can gain that sense of safety and security through some other means than the fear. This may take some work and time to work through these things. And it may not be easy to do. That said, it could still be a very worthwhile exercise to consider.
4. As a result of these questions and your personal exploration and answers, what are you committing to?
As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.
All the best,
Noel
Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com
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Noel Posus (MECI) is a former member of the Board of Directors and former Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org
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