Page 202 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

190 COACH YOURSELF TO A NEW CAREER

and do something you love instead.” I broke into a cold, nervous
sweat then and there. Fear and panic were my immediate reac-
tions. And rightly so. I was up to my
eyeballs in credit card debt, I was liv-
Do the thing you fear, ing in Manhattan and was locked into
and the death of fear is a lease on an apartment at a high rent,
certain. and I had no idea what I wanted to do
when I grew up other than that I knew
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON it wasn’t banking! As much as I wanted
to quit, I was in no position to do so.
And if you’ve got kids and a mortgage,
no wonder the hair is standing straight up on the back of your
neck! Fear is our friend. It tells us when we are about to be eaten
by a bear or about to fall off a cliff. Pay attention to it!
One easy way to overcome your fears is to fully understand
them. Take a few minutes to examine your fears and think about
what exactly you are afraid of. Write these things down. Imagine
the worst-case scenario: If you were to quit your job, what is the
worst possible thing that could happen? Is this scenario valid, or
are you just being dramatic? In other words, would you really be a
bag lady on the streets, or do you actually have a number of friends
and family members you could live with while you sort out your
life?
Most fears miraculously diminish in proportion to the amount
of funds we have saved in reserve. The more money you have
saved, the less fear you harbor. You literally can afford to take the
risk. You know you have the reserves to get through a rough patch
or two, so you aren’t afraid to try something new, whether that
is starting a business or switching careers. Then again, this isn’t
always the case.
I’ve mentioned before, my client Melissa Todd, the owner of
Hip Hounds, was afraid of giving up her steady income at the law
firm. Fear was one of the forces that prevented her from quitting
and working on her business full-time. She admitted that she
actually had the money saved but worried that it wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t until the clash between her core values and the firm’s