Attitude: Making Fear Work For You

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you use fear as a catalyst to enhanced performance. Reading time: 2:47

In the 1979 movie The Great Santini the fighter’s pilot’s son asks his dad if he is afraid when he flies. The fighter pilot replies: “Hell, yeah, that’s what makes me such a great pilot.”

Leaders make fear work for them.

Robert Duval as The Great Santini making fear work for him

Their fear becomes a catalyst that forces them out of their protective cocoons and into the Butterfly of their Being. There on the wings of fear they soar higher on their flight to success.

In fact the word –Fear- comes from the Old English word (Faran) which means “to go.” So when you fear, you are on the go (GOal-setting)

Tha’st why I like to think of fear as a wake up call that forces you to get up and GO in response to change. I think of FEAR as an acrostic for:

F-E-A-R: Forcing Experience And Response

Fear forces you out of your comfort zone.
Fear forces you to confront new challenges.
Forces you to address new opportunities.
Forces you to learn more how to reach your potential to turn the proverbial acorns in all of us into sturdy oaks.

Indeed, as a force, fear can either paralyze or supersize your performance. But in any case Continue reading “Attitude: Making Fear Work For You”