Book review Feel the fear and do it anyway - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Book review Feel the fear and do it anyway - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog This book is about the fears that we all have in our lives to some degree. Fear of failing. Fear of succeeding. Fear of decisions. Fear of aging, of loss or of helplessness. The books basic premise is, that your aim should not be to get rid of your fears. You should feel your fear, but not let it stop you from doing things you really want to do. The book describes three levels of fear. The first level is the actual event that you fear say losing you job. The second level is the deeper fear, triggered by the first level eg. rejection (if being fired would make you feel rejected). Beneath that on the third level theres only one fear: The fear that you wont be able to cope. If you knew in advance that you could take it, there would be nothing to be afraid of. So all fear reduces to fear of not being able to cope. This is interesting, because this means that the best way to handle your fear, isnt to make your life safer its to increase your abilities, or your faith in your abilities. The more you know you can handle, the less reason there is to fear. This point is illustrated with several stories of people who have diminished their lives time and again, to keep safe. This doesnt reduce fear, quite the contrary, these people lived in perpetual fear. When some catastrophic event interfered with their reduced existence (say the death of a spouse), some of these people found that they were forced to reconnect with life, and that they could cope. And this reduced their fear. The book also emphasizes positivity as a way to reduce fear. The book argues that you need to constantly train your positive thinking, or youll revert to negative thinking. Theres also an excellent chapter on decision making, which argues that many of us see a decision making process mostly in the light of what well lose or risk in each alternative before us. To reduce the fear (or discomfort) of making a decision, we should realize that all options are good, and that no mater what we choose, its still up to us to make it work. The book contains many illustrative stories and exercises you can try yourself. I found it informative, entertaining and thought-provoking, and I recommend this book to anyone interested in the mechanisms that hold people back from growth and change. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related