For years, whenever my daughters felt stuck or confused, they’d always call me for advice.
“What are you most afraid to do?” I’d ask every time.
They’d tell me and inevitably I’d reply: “Then that’s exactly what you need to do next.”
They didn’t like my response, of course, but when they followed it, they always met with success.
Nowadays, they don’t even bother asking. They finally realized what every successful woman I’ve ever interviewed eventually figured out.
The number one requirement for success in anything is simply this: You’ve got to be willing to be uncomfortable.
For us pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding creatures, that’s a very tall order. It’s certainly not comfortable to go where you fear or face up to a challenge.
Yet, that’s exactly what’s required. The real work in raising the bar is to stop doing the same old thing you’ve always done, try out new strategies, let go of what’s not working and refuse to fall back into familiar terrain.
In fact, the trick is to regard fear and discomfort not as ‘bad,’ or something to avoid, but as a beneficial sign that it’s time to course correct, do something new, something different, something scary.
After all, success always hides on the other side of fear.
So I ask you this: What are you most afraid to do?
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