Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to be smart about your fears. Sometimes fears
Speaker 1: can be conquered and sometimes they are there for a reason.
Speaker 1: Wisdom is about knowing the difference. So I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about fears recently, one because this is airing around Halloween,
Speaker 1: and also because I've been reading Farnush to Rabi's new
Speaker 1: book A Healthy State of Panic, which is about how
Speaker 1: acknowledging your fears can be helpful for building your career
Speaker 1: and achieving success. Anyway, fears are a complicated topic. Some
Speaker 1: fears are deep seated and some are just about what
Speaker 1: is unfamili Once upon a time I got really nervous
Speaker 1: and scared of public speaking. Getting up in front of
Speaker 1: big numbers of people and needing to entertain them for
Speaker 1: an hour is not easy. But then eventually I learned
Speaker 1: that if you write nonfiction books, speaking about them is
Speaker 1: going to be part of your business. I did a
Speaker 1: lot of speaking, and speaking got easier. If you give
Speaker 1: a speech once, it's scary. If you give a speech
Speaker 1: one hundred times, it just feels like Tuesday. Soon enough,
Speaker 1: I was in the Tuesday camp and didn't feel frightened
Speaker 1: by this sort of thing anymore. I assume that this
Speaker 1: is what happens with people in any line of work
Speaker 1: that involves some common phobias. If you spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time in airplanes, as crew members do, whereas just
Speaker 1: general frequent flyers do, you stop viewing turbulence is terrifying.
Speaker 1: It's just like going over a speed bump on a road.
Speaker 1: If you wind up in a job washing windows or
Speaker 1: fixing roller coasters or something like that, you will get
Speaker 1: over any lingering fear of heights. In any case, if
Speaker 1: you have some fear that is keeping you from doing
Speaker 1: something you want in life, then it's worth seeing what
Speaker 1: you can do to be more rational about it. You
Speaker 1: might be able to do some small, repeated exposures to
Speaker 1: lessen the fear. Lots of people are afraid of investing.
Speaker 1: You can lose money, but it's pretty hard to build
Speaker 1: wealth without some form of investments. So you can keep
Speaker 1: enough in safe assets to feel well safe and start
Speaker 1: small and learn as you go over time. Small paper
Speaker 1: losses won't feel scary, especially as you see that they
Speaker 1: tend to be recovered over the long haul. If you
Speaker 1: are scared of public speaking but you know it would
Speaker 1: advance your career, you can join toast masks, or practice
Speaker 1: in front of groups of friends, or give smaller talks
Speaker 1: to friendly audiences, like maybe leading a class at your
Speaker 1: house of worship. You might still feel some trepidation, but
Speaker 1: you can decide to feel the fear and do it anyway.
Speaker 1: I don't particularly enjoy flying, but I want to see
Speaker 1: the world, and it is hard to do that without
Speaker 1: taking to the skies. On the other hand, you don't
Speaker 1: have to conquer all your fears. Sometimes you can just
Speaker 1: accept that they are your quirks and you can build
Speaker 1: your life avoiding them. I really really do not like
Speaker 1: open heights, so I don't go rock climbing. Some of
Speaker 1: my kids like it. I try not to watch. My
Speaker 1: little brother does rock climbing quite seriously, again, try not
Speaker 1: to watch. It is just not for me. It is
Speaker 1: likely that I will without ever having gone skydiving or
Speaker 1: bungee jumping or things like that. I am absolutely fine
Speaker 1: with that. If you fear snakes, just skip those zoo exhibits.
Speaker 1: It is fine. Sometimes fears might be smart. Some people
Speaker 1: give off warning signs of being mean or vindictive, and
Speaker 1: it might be worth just putting some space between you
Speaker 1: and those people rather than going overboard trying to conquer
Speaker 1: a fear of conflict. I find the idea of feeling
Speaker 1: strapped for cash terrifying, especially being in debt, so I
Speaker 1: have always prioritized building up a financial cushion more or
Speaker 1: less so I can sleep at night. I don't think
Speaker 1: that's a fear that I really need to conquer, since
Speaker 1: for the average person the outcome is what financial experts recommend. Anyway,
Speaker 1: In any case, as this episode is airing around Halloween
Speaker 1: and when we're thinking of fears in general, it's good
Speaker 1: to look at our own particular fears rationally. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: can be conquered. Sometimes they can be lessened and then
Speaker 1: lived with if that makes larger goals doable. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: can just be acknowledged because they're not really hurting anything.
Speaker 1: And sometimes our fears are rational and may be helpful.
Speaker 1: It is good to understand the difference. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to before breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.