Fear is natural. Many people can identify with fear. Sometimes people reluctantly identify with it because of the struggle to access it, name it, admit it, or because of the uncertainty with what to do with it or more importantly how to be with it.
Fear is a tool. When people let fear be the basis of how to act or make decisions, the tool can hold people back which is the opposite of what a tool is intended.
Fear is a feeling that can have a profound impact on people. Being emotionally literate of feelings help people understand themselves, and other people more effectively.
When people live or lead from fear, even if unintentionally or unconsciously, it can have profound impact on whether people on a team, in an organization or in a family feel connected, motivated, cared for and empowered or pushed aside.
Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, suggests five steps to working with emotions such as fear and teaches readers how to become more emotionally literate. People need to hone five skills: recognize, understand, label, express and regulate. These make up the RULER approach. He provides a visual tool called the Mood Meter. By rating two questions, how pleasant do you feel? how much energy is running through your body? participants can plot themselves on the Mood Meter which helps name the feeling.
The first step to change or improve anything is to recognize and acknowledge it. John Maxwell put this succinctly. You can’t grow yourself unless you know yourself.
What have you learned from your fears?
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