How New Work Pioneers Turn Fear On Its Head

Photo credit: Steven Durbin Photography

This is the fifth in an emerging manifesto writing series. Today we’re looking at one of the biggest challenges both to reframing success and to living the New Work Pioneer vision: fear.

Here are five ways I see my clients expressing it. And some corresponding wisdom on how New Work Pioneers are kissing it goodbye.

“I’ll go crazy”

Making changes to the way you work is big shit. That’s true whether you’re determined to have a life within your corporate job, or you’re taking your professional work in a self-employed direction. Actually, if you don’t feel even a little challenged, you’re not really changing.

With change comes a temporary shifting of the sands in terms of what you know and can control. This can be intensely fear-provoking and cause you to draw back or try to cling onto what’s familiar.

New Work Pioneers normalise their feelings by knowing it’s pretty predictable to encounter this intense uncertainty.

They remind themselves of the positive reasons they’ve set themselves on this journey and the life-giving things they’re striving for.

They tell themselves that they are in the driving seat of the changes they’re making, and know that they themselves set the pace on how quickly or slowly they take it in order to keep their journey exciting and not stressful.

“I’ll become the proverbial bag lady”

Lurking underneath this fear is the question:

“Who am I to dare to break away from the norm, and thrive?”

Deviance, good or bad, has consequences in the eyes of our society. We don’t want to be thrown on the street metaphorically or for real.

This fear monster is cut down to size when New Work Pioneers give themselves permission to be different, and to make what money they need and want. They don’t look for endorsement on this beyond themselves.

They bring awareness to financial affairs and manage them well, recognising that being out of control around money is a sure way to let this fear have a field day.

“My friends and family will not accept change in me”

Reality: not everyone in your life will be enthusiastic about you taking charge of your destiny. You are part of a system which has till now relied on you playing your role in endorsing its values and beliefs. As you change, you send shock waves through the whole system. A supportive system will salute your courage in helping it re-evaluate itself. A fearful system will try to bring you back in line.

New Work Pioneers recognise that they have choice about the extent to which they need and want their system’s endorsement. They weigh up their need to live and work on their terms with the price to them of upsetting the system.

With closest relationships, they seek to discuss and negotiate their needs in a way that preserves and strengthens the relationship. They recognise that change can often be threatening to their partners and are empathic about the needs of the other throughout their journey.

They recognise too that sometimes detractors are giving voice to their own doubts. They learn that critics are less wounding to them when they have squared themselves to their decisions.

“I won’t be able to honour my personal or financial commitments”

It’s common for even young professionals to amass a number of things to which they’ve become consciously or unconsciously attached. The spider’s web of things that hold us in a place.

Mortgage? Loans? School fees? An unspoken promise to your other half that you’d always be an accounting firm lawyer and retire on a superlative pension? A portfolio of clients that you feel you’ve handcuffed yourself to, that you couldn’t possibly let down by choosing a different path?

New Work Pioneers take head-on the fear of breaking promises, and the imagined consequences. They list out everything to which they feel a sense of obligatory attachment. They do some reality checking on what on their list can and can’t be changed. They give themselves choice around what stays and what goes.

They check how okay they feel about allowing life and the fulness of time to alter earlier decisions. If they find themselves holding onto any limiting belief on this, they choose rewrite it more positively for themselves.

“I’ll fail at doing something different and risk looking stupid”

Being successful in mastering new behaviours, and new ways of working and living take time. It takes real courage to go out on a limb and do things differently. Things that your heart are telling you are for real ahead of any real evidence. Out on a limb, it’s pretty normal to feel fear.

New Work Pioneers let go of the win/lose way of thinking. They allow themselves to experiment without needing to achieve. They let go of defensiveness and open themselves to the learning they get from the new situations into which they put themselves. In the process they access the creativity inside them that, paradoxically, makes success more guaranteed.

They give themselves permission that they can be themselves and be loved.

If there’s one big takeaway from all of this, it’s that New Work Pioneers see fear as a predictable part of the process. That allows them to normalise it for themselves and to keep moving.

So, manifesto writing team, does this speak to the roadblocks that get in the way for you? What would you add? What’s true of you here? What different experiences have you had? What remains challenging?

There are two remaining posts in this series. To automatically get the next update, feel free to subscribe.

Related posts:

1. Introducing The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers
2. New Work Pioneers Use Crises As Opportunities For Change
3. The Birth of a New Work Pioneer