Fear Is a Focus Problem

The simple practice that shifts fear into forward motion

Imagine you’re hanging off the edge of a cliff.

Your fingers dig into the rocks while your feet dangle. The wind swirls around you as you feel your arms tire. You know that if you’re going to climb up to safety, the time has to be now.

The question is, would you look down or up as you climb?

Looking down, you’d see the great distance between you and the earth. Your head would spin, and your stomach would turn sideways. Fear would leave you frozen.

Looking up, you can see the blueness of the sky, the clouds, and a cliff edge that is right there. The sight of safety activates your body, and you start climbing back to the top.

This is the true value of mindset.

In our example, whether you’re looking up or down, it’s still you facing the same challenge. But the way you look at the situation changes how your mind and body respond.

One freezes you with fear. The other activates your drive to overcome.

If we look at the daily challenges we face, we’re really always just in the same position on the side of the cliff.

How we look at the world is how it appears. Our minds evolved to keep us safe, so we instinctively look at what could go wrong. We do this to protect ourselves. But what ends up happening is that we create a habit of seeing every email, message, invitation, or opportunity as a threat.

We magnify uncertainty, predict failure, and rehearse what could go wrong.

We look down.

The good news is that our attention is something we can not only guide, but also train.

We can learn to look up.