Do you sometimes feel scared or anxious on your career clarity journey? Most people do. Don’t let fear stop you from taking charge of your destiny! While there truly is no magic cure for worries, doubts and fears, many of my career coaching clients say the three steps I am about to share with you work just like magic.

Step 1. Get Curious about Your Fears

As you take courageous steps towards significant career changes in your life, you wake up all the niggling, nasty, critical voices. These gremlins may have been in deep slumber, before you ventured on this journey. Some of them have been with you all your life. Now, that you have woken them, they are screaming at you louder.

Don’t you wish you could ditch fear, cut it off like a useless appendage and move on? Rather than trying to get rid of, ignore or numb your fears, there is a much more powerful way. Let’s get curious about your fears! As Pema Chödrön says so wisely: “Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.”

What kinds of thoughts run through your mind when you feel anxious, worried or scared?

fears

Here are a few examples of how gremlins like to talk:

  • “Who do you think you are?”
  • “You should just suck it up and get a real job.”
  • “That’s never going to work!”
  • “You just won’t get there!”
  • “You are not good enough!”

Now, recall a moment when you felt anxious, scared or worried. Notice the slogans circling around your head. Write them down. Some of these slogans shrivel and lose their power as soon as you expose them to the light of day. Other ‘gremlins’ may be more persistent.

Step 2. Be Playful with Your Fears

Let’s create a little space between you and your fears. Imagine that your ‘gremlin’ was a person, creature or entity outside of you. What does your ‘gremlin’ look like in your imagination?

For one of my clients the image of a dark grey-greenish cloud hanging over his head, blocking the sun, showed up. Another client felt a meek looking, hunched woman, behind her back, breathing down her neck and decided to name her Gertrude. Yet, for another career coaching client a gremlin appeared as a little devil on her left shoulder.

gremlin-fears

What ‘gremlin’ comes to mind, when you imagine fear outside of you?

Using the following prompting questions, describe your gremlin. Draw a sketch or caricature of your gremlin. Be playful with it. Don’t take your gremlin too seriously!

  • What does your gremlin look like? (physicality, voice, attire, facial expression and body posture)
  • Where do you sense your gremlin? (behind you, in front of you, off to the side, or above)
  • Anything else you notice about your gremlin?
  • If your gremlin had a name, what would it be?

Step 3. Connect with Your Power to Face Your Gremlin

Once you have a good sense of your gremlin, connect with your power. Then face your gremlin, your fears with courage, following the prompts below. When you speak your truth, you reclaim all the energy that these fears have robbed you of for far too long. It’s time to reclaim your power now!

Here’s How to Face Your Gremlin (Your Fears) with Courage:

  • Stand up tall, feet shoulder width apart.
  • Take a deep breath into your belly and breathe out with a big sigh.
  • Rock forward and backward gently feeling your toes and heals as you sway.
  • Let yourself arrive in a well-balanced position, feeling your feet firmly connected to the ground.
  • Take another deep breath into your belly and breathe out with another sigh.
  • Notice where in your body you feel your core, your power right now.
  • Connect more deeply with your core by breathing into it or placing a hand there.
  • Address your gremlin speaking your truth directly from your core.
  • Notice the impact on your gremlin. Does it fade away, shrivel or dissolve? Does it turn away or leave the room? What do you notice about your gremlin?
  • Notice how you feel now? Lighter, more confident, stronger? What do you notice within you?

Practice Your New Power Moves

As you face your fears with courage, you take your power back. This doesn’t mean that your gremlin is gone forever. Your gremlin is going to sneak back into your thoughts, especially when you take courageous action towards the career and life you truly want.

Each time it does, name your gremlin as if you were greeting an old friend. Acknowledge your gremlin’s presence with words such as “hello little cloud, it’s you again” or “howdy little devil.” This weakens the impact your fears have on you. Your gremlin may shrivel or fade when you address it like that.

power-pose-fears

Then, follow the prompts as described above to connect with your power and speak your truth. Each time you face your fears with courage you reclaim your power and release the power your fears have over you. This frees you to move forward and create the positive changes you desire in your life and career.

Are you ready to take another powerful step towards the life and career that’s right for YOU?

Request your free career clarity consultation, now! Your gremlin will most likely try to prevent you from receiving support on your career clarity journey. What a great opportunity to practice your power moves!