Genuine Insights

Show fear the door

Is it just me or do you find that some weeks have a kind of theme to them? As a writer, everything in my life seems to play out with a kind of thematic structure to it and this week’s loud —almost deafening—theme is fear. It kept coming up in conversations and I got to thinking about how fear stops us in our tracks from time to time. It’s like the unexpected visitor who arrives to your home at the worst possible moment and instead of taking the hint that’s it’s not a good time, he plops down on the couch and stays way too long.

This is exactly how I see fear. It shows up uninvited at the worst of times. Whether it’s fear of failure, death, or heartbreak, fear of the unknown or even fear of fear itself, fear has the power to paralyze us. So how can we manage this gnarly beast?

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Posted Aug 9, 2011 Tagged under: fear, overcoming obstacles

The Talk of my life

When I walked onto the TED stage with butterflies in my stomach and tremoring hands I had two choices to make, do I freak out or do I decide to enjoy the moment the monumental moment. Thank God I chose the latter with the spotlight shinning upon my caramel skin, Star Trek like microphone snug around my ear, I stood tall, embraced the energy of the audience and decided to enjoy the hell out of those 3 minutes rather than freak out.

I then began to tell my story and the TED Global audience of 700 minds responded instantly to me with laughter, compassion, encouragement, interest and solidarity with my “we all possess practical genius” message. It was one of those amazing experiences where you actually can’t believe its really happening as it happens.

The greatest part of these 3 minutes was the connection I was able to have with with what some will argue is one of the smartest international audiences a speaker can find herself in front of. I gave them everything I had, including energy, passion, authenticity and of course huge dollops of genius and it worked. For three minutes I had and enjoyed their full attention and it was truly a remarkable feeling.

PREPARING for the Talk of your Life

The back-story to preparing for what TED organizers boldly describe as “the talk of your life” is all about practice, practice and more practice. As a coach to many executives, I projected many of them would ask me just how many hours did I practice so I proactively logged the amount of time I invested in the talk and net to net, it was a grand total of 62 hours.

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Posted Jul 21, 2010 Tagged under: business, fat brains, ideas and innovation, motivation, overcoming obstacles

5 Easy Steps to Making Change Work for You Instead of Against You

This week my husband and I made a few life-changing decisions and rather than becoming paralyzed by the fear of change we chose to face it down and make it work for us. I hope the following steps help you, too.

Step 1: Learn the mantra.

First, address your fear with the mantra, “Fear is only false evidence acting real.” If you repeat this to yourself while you are experiencing the emotional influence of fear those manifestations of fear begin to abate. I have battled with anxiety most of my life and let me tell you, I know a thing or two about fear and this mantra works.

When you are confronted with a life changing opportunity and you begin to feel the fear rise within you, tame it with this mantra and remember the sooner you calm down the sooner you will actually be able to carry on with clarity and purpose. And at the end of the day isn’t that we all want, to just be able to carry on with what we were doing?

Tackle the fear that comes with change, dilute it with self-affirming inner talk and remember what my dad always says: “This, too, shall pass.”

Step 2: Realize that change moves you forward.

Change has many faces. Whether its relocation, changing careers, becoming a parent, reinventing yourself, getting through a divorce or becoming a vegetarian, although it’s never really comfortable and almost always difficult, change is the only way to move forward. Literally.

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Posted Jun 15, 2010 Tagged under: creativity, fear, lists, motivation, overcoming obstacles

Fearless

People ask me all the time, “Gina how do you do it?” But the real question they are asking is “Gina, how the hell are you succeeding during such uncertain times?”

My answer is simple. The way I see it, you have one choice in life. You can choose to live in fear or you can choose to live fearlessly. I have chosen the
latter.

The greatest lesson I have learned this year is if you don’t want to live in fear, you have to take risks. The more risks you decide to take in life, the
less fear you live with. Big fat, scary risks really do wash away fear and the outcome over time is a rewarding sense of fearlessness. The trick to this paradigm is if you don’t take outrageously scary risks like jumping out of a plane or committing to a relationship or, in my case, launching a business during a recession, you will never really conquer fear.

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Posted Oct 9, 2009 Tagged under: entrepreneurship, fear, overcoming obstacles

Sanity is Overrated

Yesterday I watched “The Soloist” and I sat in the darkness with tears rolling down my cheeks, my heart racing and my fingers tapping on the keyboard on my knees that wasn’t really there. This film reminded me of the particular, occasional, unique and extraordinary intersection of insanity and brilliance. This is a “sweet spot” I happen to know well.

This movie was almost beside the point. Yes, the music was great, Beethoven to be specific. The edgy cinematography and amazing acting made it a film anyone would be glad they had seen. For me, though, the takeaway was the battle between the existence of genius and insanity all at once. That’s huge.

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Posted Aug 25, 2009 Tagged under: art and music, genius, overcoming obstacles