Don’t just do it
Image courtesy of Randy Wolken
Nike has created a billion-dollar empire out of “Just do it.” Yet we all know it’s not so simple.
Nothing is more annoying when you’re dealing with difficult emotions about a decision than someone uttering their slogan. It can feel like your emotions are being invalidated. Maybe you’re being irrational but it’s a normal human thing to do so you shouldn’t be ashamed.
Brazilian author and podcaster, Tiago Henriques, says it’s his biggest pet peeve. He believes we should be more compassionate to people who are frozen by fear. His suggestion is to make use of what he calls the “Minimum Viable Fear”. You break down the fear and find the smallest thing you can which you can overcome and then repeat. Eventually, you take on the big fear without the dramatic showdown.
Rather than jumping off a tall building, find the staircase and take it one step at a time. It’s manageable and means your alarm bells have less reason to ring. There are several steps you can take to get through whatever is troubling you.
This article is based on the Mindful & Driven episode with Tiago. You can listen here or find the YouTube video at the bottom of this article.
Squeeze the cloud into buckets
We evolved to have fear to help us survive in the jungle. To make us freeze when we see danger so we do not draw attention to ourselves. According to Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, we react in a similar way to opening emails as we would to finding a lion in the wild.
Fear can be overwhelming and all-consuming. Like me, you’ve probably had a sinking feeling in your stomach even though your mind cannot articulate exactly what is terrifying you. When you need to make a major decision, there can be so many factors to consider that you become a zombie instead.
The first thing you can do is get it all down on paper. Release it from your brain all at once so it can get out of panic mode. It could be financial, practical, and emotional buckets for example. What you may find is dealing with the non-emotional side eases your overall stress and makes the emotional side easier to deal with.
Just do it small
You can’t make lists forever so at some point you will need to act. All you need to do is worry about the first tiny step though. Just do it but just do it small. Make it feel as safe as you need it to feel.
It’s a good idea to experiment at the beginning. If you consider your new venture as trying something out, it doesn’t bring the same pressure as committing to a long-term plan. It’s okay to start something then abandon it if it’s not right for you.
Tiago did this in his creative career. His first-ever Instagram page was under a pseudonym and grew to 50k followers without anyone knowing it was him. He still had self-imposed anxiety but he didn’t have the worry of people judging him if it failed. You could do the same thing with anonymous content to build the confidence to create a business with your face on the show later on.
A struggle he has been dealing with recently is making the shift from Portuguese content to English. He has great English and if you listen to the podcast, I’m sure you’ll agree with me. Yet there’s a mental block where he doesn’t think he’s good enough. So he took an interview with me to test it out. It’s less risky as it’s not directly on his page alongside all his other content so if people don’t like it, he simply won’t show them.
There are so many ways you could apply this to your own life. If you want to start a new career, why not dabble on it on the side for a while? If you want to start a new hobby, why not try it at home with YouTube videos first? In an ideal world we wouldn’t have fear but in the real world, finding the minimum viable fear can help us conquer it.
I hope you found these tips useful and can see ways you can apply them to your own life. If you’d like to hear Tiago talk about it with me in more detail, check out our conversation in the video below.