I recently read a fantastic book called Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders. It’s not an easy read, being very technical, but it has excellent insights on why we do some of what we do, from a brain standpoint, and on how we can be more effective in business by working with our brain instead of against it.
The section on fear was particularly interesting. It makes sense that fear distracts us, but I didn’t realize that the part of the brain that deals with emotion puts fear at the head of the list. If fear is present, it drowns out almost everything else.
Another fascinating fact was that the brain has a bias toward future positive events. That’s right. Your anticipation of the future is more powerful than what happened in the past, whether positive or negative.
Those two facts work together in an interesting way. If you are fearful of the future, the fear is going to be processed first by the brain, and the anticipation of your fearful future is going to be perceived strongly. Since few of our fears involve obvious physical danger, like running from a tiger, we don’t always handle our fears in an appropriate manner.
So what can we do to diffuse the fear and help our brains to function better? First, you can divert the fear. Fears are usually nameless anxieties. When we examine them and make sense of them, we often discover that the fear is worse than the reality. For example, are you worried you might lose your job? In this economy, that’s a reasonable fear. But take an honest look at it. Is your job really in jeopardy, or are you reacting to all the news about the recession? If your job really is in trouble, what can you do now to improve your situation? Well, you could certainly start networking!
So first determine if your fear is real, and what you can do to positively address it. Then look to the future. Imagine a realistic but positive outcome. Perhaps you could visualize that you’ve networked your way to a new job. That vision of reality becomes paramount in your brain, and it will both ease the fear and direct your brain to be on the alert for ways to make that future happen.
Does it sound kind of New-Agey? Well, maybe, but it’s backed up by sound neurological science. Your brain has always been one of your most potent allies. Learn how to harness it to help you, and you’ll do much better than if you let it control the show and your future.
Read the book. There’s lots more there to give you ideas to master your fear and be more successful.
Tags: general business
I’ve been studying Buddhism for a couple years now, and I’ve gotten a much better handle on my nameless fears and anxieties by realizing we create our thoughts based on perceptions.
So many of our thoughts are just that – thoughts. They aren’t real. Particularly when we start feeling scared and anxious, it’s easy for the brain to run away in la-la land to create even more fearful thoughts.
Everyone has their way of facing fear and calling it out for the faker that it is. Good article!
Good point, Nancy. You’re right, thoughts aren’t real. But our brain doesn’t always know the difference, so it is important to keep that in mind when dealing with fear.
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