(Great fears are barriers to experiencing your real life.)

 

This is one of the most common of all fears, and usually the least recognized because it is masked by the process of contingency planning.

Planning for possible outcomes, contingency planning, is a hallmark of highly successful people. They don’t just sit in place reacting to whatever shows up in the moment. Instead, like good chess or checkers players, they scope out several moves in advance. By doing so they are prepared for a range of possible outcomes and thus have the space and resources to respond to them rather than merely react. Contingency planning is a tool which provides better results.

Fearing the future/unknown/uncertainty is about the fear, an inherently painful experience. Any time you have thoughts with fear embedded you are experiencing pain and you, and I, are wired at the deepest level to react to pain. It’s a survival tool. Thus fearing the future causes you to pull back into defensive, protective, pain avoidance mode.

People who are unaware of this (usually unconscious) process may argue that they are simply being prudent and planning for possibilities. Not so. They are avoiding pain.

Effective contingency planners visit the future without getting caught up in the fear.

 

Coaching Point: What are you planning?

 

Copyright 2014 Steve Straus. All rights reserved.