{"id":66906,"date":"2024-06-20T09:09:56","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T16:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/?p=66906"},"modified":"2024-06-20T09:09:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T16:09:56","slug":"this-scared-me-out-of-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/this-scared-me-out-of-my-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"This scared me out of my mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It\u2019s a great day to muster up some courage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever felt completely terrified in your career? Maybe you needed to bring up an uncomfortable topic, or you decided to go after a client that feels just out of reach, or maybe you\u2019re finally ready to launch a new product or service.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my more-than-two-decades-long career as a serial entrepreneur, I\u2019ve gone through these scenarios more times than I can count. And if you\u2019re hoping for some sage wisdom that it gets less scary in time, let me disappoint you\u2013because it doesn\u2019t. I\u2019d venture to say that just about every day, I feel fearful\u2013sometimes in small ways, sometimes larger, but it\u2019s always there. It doesn\u2019t matter how many stages I\u2019ve presented on, how many successful businesses I\u2019ve built, how many clients I secure. Fear is a part of everyday life as someone who\u2019s adamant about wanting more.<\/span><\/p>\n

The one thing I have learned about fear, though, is how to use it to my advantage. For example, I\u2019ve learned that fear is an important gauge to determine how big I\u2019m dreaming. If there\u2019s not a healthy mix of being both excited and absolutely terrified by a project, I can tell that I\u2019m not thinking big enough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alternatively, fear is one of the most important springboards I use for getting to the never-ending next levels of my career. What I mean by that is that there\u2019s always someone who\u2019s doing what I\u2019m doing, but better\u2013someone more creative, more successful, more innovative. And I don\u2019t have to tell you what comes along with competition (but I will, it\u2019s impostor syndrome). When I feel those feelings creeping in, the ones that tell me I\u2019ll never be able to accomplish what someone else did, it\u2019s a signal that tells me it\u2019s time to strategize and overcome. It\u2019s the exact motivation I need to figure out how to fulfill my ambitions, and to do it my way. Fear is a powerful driver in helping me carve out just how creative I can be. Just when I think I\u2019ve reached my max, there\u2019s fear to help me dig deeper and evolve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Something else that makes me wide-eyed with fear? Standing up in front of all my peers, competitors, and the world at large, and asking to be judged for it. Which might surprise you, considering that I\u2019ve made a living as a speaker and presenter. I think we all fear judgment, or looking foolish. But I always go back to what I know: That if I\u2019m scared, then that\u2019s the thing that I should definitely do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In that same vein, in my latest fearful pursuit, I put it all on the line in a new article published by <\/span>Paradise Valley City Lifestyle Magazine<\/span><\/i>. In it, I spoke about being scared shitless\u2013and why I continue to constantly chase that feeling. It\u2019s one of my biggest missions as an entrepreneur to normalize being afraid, encourage others to talk about it more, and to shift our perspective on it so we can see fear for the true power player that it really is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have to know: What\u2019s the scariest thing you\u2019ve done lately in your career?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

James Patrick<\/strong>
\njamespatrick.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a great day to muster up some courage.\u00a0 Have you ever felt completely terrified in your career? Maybe you needed to bring up an uncomfortable topic, or you decided to go after a client that feels just out of reach, or maybe you\u2019re finally ready to launch a new product or service.\u00a0 In my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,44,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-jp-blog","category-personal-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66906"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66914,"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66906\/revisions\/66914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamespatrick.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}