F E A R L E S S | G I R L : Reflections from Wall Street, New York City
I loved posing with the famous ‘Fearless Girl’ statue on Wall Street
Did you know that we’re born with only two innate fears?
The fear of falling
The fear of loud sounds.
We develop fears as we get older because fear protects us.
Does it, though?
I don’t believe phrases like "Face your fears!" or "Feel the fear and do it anyway!" are terribly helpful.
I like simple, practical approaches, like working out ‘If / Then’ statements. “If I do this… Then x will happen.”
🧠 Often, when we let our brain slip into ‘If/then’ thinking mode, we start thinking worst case scenario. When I thought about leaving my job late last year, the immediate fears were: Homelessness, no clients, boredom, social isolation. Irrational? YES! But that’s okay - my brain did that to protect me.
🗒️ However if you start getting these ‘If/then’ statements out on paper (or a Google Sheet) and start documenting all the different scenarios, and workarounds, and chunk it down to actions you can take, these types of moves seems less and less scary.
You get to an inflection point where it makes sense to ‘do the thing’.
Where taking the leap is actually a better option than inaction.