The other day I spoke to a friend who found herself and her life at a fork in the road: Stay in your current job or quit and follow your entrepreneurial instincts.
We talked about her decision, the arguments which would keep her doing what she’s doing now and the ones which would make her quit. By and at large it wasn’t even a competition — striking out on her own is what every fibre in her body told her to do. And yet she hesitated…
She hesitated not for lack of rational argument or passion or drive or motivation. She hesitated because of fear of the unknown.
Since the dawn of time, our amygdala, one of the oldest and most primate parts of our brain, keeps us alive by reacting to everything new and unknown with a strong sensation of fear. And it made so much sense when sable tooth tigers still roamed the planet.
Today? Not so much.
Today fear of the unknown (in most situations) keeps you from fulfilling your true potential, becoming fully alive, performing at your peak and doing what you are meant to be doing.
Seth Godin once said so wonderfully: Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance.
Note that neither failure nor success are a given. The future is unclear. As American philosopher Alan Watts remarked: “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance.”
Why hesitate?
The world is waiting for you to join the dance.