Emily McDonald walks through a mental exercise for handling fear: imagine the worst thing that could happen, play it out to the end, and accept you'll be okay. When you stop fighting the possibility of failure or rejection, the fear loses its grip and you can act.
When dealing with fear, take it all the way to the end. What if the worst thing does happen? What if the thing that you are afraid of does happen? What if it is true? Imagine it play all the way out, all the way to the end, and then make peace with that outcome. What if you do fail? What if you do embarrass yourself? What if you do get rejected? What if you apply for that job or you go to that interview? What if you do get rejected? Then what? What's the story? And what this really does is it helps you to identify the story that's really behind the fear. Take it all the way to the end. What is the story that you're telling yourself? What happens then? What happens if you do fail? Okay, then what? And if you can take it all the way to the end and make peace with it and understand that, you know what, like even in that situation, I will be okay. It's a game changer for you. It allows you to move straight into the fear. You sort of do become a little bit fearless because that fear that you have, it no longer holds power over you.
