Staring at your biggest leap may mean overcoming fear in your career.

Overcoming Fear in your career is a challenge that all Millennial Professionals must face. When you woke up for work today, did you feel a little like the individual in this picture may have felt?

Did you feel like you were on the edge of a glass ledge, wanting to jump off, but paralyzed by the jump and meticulously anticipating the long way down?

When you can see the path before you, but it’s uncertain, long and maybe even challenging, fear can set in. Its times like this that to advance, you need to make a plan for overcoming fear in your career.

I’m here to tell you that fear comes with any big career move or change. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep moving, because often if you do, that next step will be your break through.

My Story of Fear

Fear creeps up in powerful ways when you don’t manage it well. You’ll learn how much you grow when you focus on overcoming fear in your career instead of folding under pressure.

Fear showed up for me recently as we hired another individual in my department. I was so excited to add another person to the team because I desperately needed that additional support to do my job well.

The next step was training her to do a huge portion of my job! That’s when the fear set in! I started thinking about all the negatives.

• What is she out performs me?
• What if I train myself out of a job?
• What if my co-workers like working with her more?
• What if she messes everything up?

I was stuck in this negative thought cycle, and while I knew this was a great thing for my work life and career, I became insecure.

I had to overcome this and in a lot of ways, I still am! But given that I am dealing with this RIGHT now, I wanted to share with you, how I am actively overcoming fear in my career every day!

Steps for Overcoming Fear in your Career

Define your WHY

Before the fear set in, did you reflect on why you are taking this step? When you have a strong why, suddenly the fear doesn’t mean much.

If you didn’t define why you are making this leap in your career, then right now. Get a pen and paper and write down WHY!

• Why is this move critical for your career?
• Why is the outcome in your best interest?
• Why is making this change important to you?

If you find that there isn’t a good reason why, you may need to reconsider if you are on the right path. In that case, fear may be your intuition telling you to steer clear!

Address your Fears and write a “Why not” statement

If you are constantly reminding yourself about your fears, of course, you will become paralyzed by fear. When you give into the fear, you’ve hit a barrier on your path and you’re going to have to figure out how to clear the way.

So much of that starts with what controls your thoughts. We need to change that. So right now – pull out that same piece of paper and write down what you fear.

Then I want you to write a counter with “why not…”, “Why wouldn’t” or “why can’t…”

For example:

• Fear: I can’t make a career move because I’m not trained/
• Counter: Why can’t I, a talented and intelligent millennial professional, bring my expertise to a new career?

Your answer is always that there is no reason you can’t! If your answer is fearful, then keep doing this exercise until you don’t have any more reasons why you can’t get what you want!

Make a What-If Statement: If you can create a powerful what-if statement then overcoming fear in your career becomes EASY! We all say, well What if (insert negative statenet here) but what if we focused on a positive ending to that question.

• What if you excel in your career?
• What if you get that manager position?
• What if you WOW your boss with your proposal?

Again, so much of this battle is mental, and if you can control your thoughts you can control your path!

Plan out the Path

Sometimes our fear just comes from being unsure and being fearful of instability and uncertainty that comes with a leap.

When you create a clear plan to get to the finish line, then the fear of the journey and the unknown can be managed.

You can create a plan with my career mapping workbook, which can be found here.

Take a Leap

If you’ve made peace with your fear, mapped out your journey and determined this is the BEST move for you, then make a decision (not based on fear) and take the LEAP!

The best time to make a move is NOW! It’s not tomorrow, and it’s not next year. It’s when you’re ready. Honestly, if you’re thinking of making the leap, it probably means the time is here.

Postponing your future is just another way of being controlled by fear. Make sure you are always in control of your career and not fear!

Believe and Invest in Yourself

So many of us don’t make the leap because we don’t believe in yourselves and we don’t invest time and love in ensuring we are the best versions of ourselves.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t have a day when fear wins or that you didn’t have patience with yourself today.

It just means that when fear arises, remember your “why”. When you’re feeling like you’re inadequate spend time lifting yourself up.

On top of everything, make time to ensure you have the tools, knowledge and skills to continue advancing. When all else fails, you’ll know you have everything to succeed!

Here is to us Overcoming our Fears!

When I feel fearful at work, I come back to these steps and I know that at work, my career will continue to flourish. I know you can do the same!

Let's celebrate us and how even despite the fear of the unknown and of the challenges that we will face, we are successful millennial professionals!

If you need help overcoming fear in your career, then you may want to work with me. Click here to schedule a career coaching consultation call with me!