The Daily Mastermind
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Episode 937 · Mar 12, 2024

How to Face Your Fears and Build the Life You Were Meant to Live

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Fear is one of the most powerful forces holding people back from their greatest potential. In this episode of The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III delivers a tactical breakdown of nine strategies you can use to acknowledge, feel, and push past the fears that are keeping you stuck.

Drawing on insights from Leo at Zen Habits and his own lived experience, George makes a point that resonates deeply: most of the fears we carry are things that will probably never happen. Yet they stop us cold anyway.

Why Most Fears Are Unnecessary Barriers

Animals fear immediate dangers. Humans fear things that have not happened yet and may never happen at all. George argues that the root of most fear is a single belief: that you are not good enough. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of intimacy, even fear of success, all trace back to that same wound in your self-esteem.

"Once you realize that having fear is natural, that's okay. But letting it stop you from going after your dreams, that's a mistake. That's a tragedy."

Recognizing this pattern is the first step toward dismantling it.

How to Acknowledge and Feel Your Fear

George's first two strategies are simple but profound: acknowledge your fear out loud, then write it down. Writing it is not just an acknowledgment; it brings the fear into the light of day so you can create actual solutions to overcome it. Journaling, George notes, forces you to think through your thoughts in more detail.

From there, strategy three is counterintuitive: feel the fear. Do not push it away, do not bury it. Successful people, George cites Jessica Alba and Al Pacino among them, have all spoken openly about their fears. They pushed through rather than pretending fear did not exist.

What Is the Worst That Can Happen?

Strategy four is a mental reframe George uses personally. When he is scared about a situation, he asks himself: what is the worst that can happen? The answer, looked at honestly, is rarely as catastrophic as the fear suggests. You might fail a venture, lose a relationship, or get rejected. But you will survive. You will learn. You will keep moving.

"When you can get good with the worst case scenario, everything else is a cakewalk."

Getting comfortable with the floor frees you to take the leap.

How to Take Action in Spite of Fear

The fifth strategy is direct: just do it. Act in spite of your mood. Act in spite of your emotions.

"When you can remind yourself that your success and your best life is on the other side of your fear, you push through it anyway. You just do the things that most people aren't willing to do."

Strategy six is preparation: get mentally strong, physically fit, and ready. Know that no matter what, you will make it through.

Why Being Present Is a Fear-Buster

Fear lives in the future. Strategy seven pulls you back to right now. Stop thinking about what might go wrong. Stop rehearsing failure. Ask yourself: what is the one next step you can take in this moment? Take it. That is all that is required.

Strategy eight follows naturally: small steps. Conquering fear and pursuing a major life goal feels overwhelming when you look at the full mountain. So do not look at the full mountain. One foot in front of the other. That is how any mountain gets climbed.

Celebrate Every Win and Build a Spiral of Success

Strategy nine, and one of George's favorites, is to celebrate every success, no matter how small. George references Bill Gates and the spiral of success he used to build Microsoft, starting from the early MS-DOS days and spiraling upward through Windows, Word, Excel, and Internet Explorer. Each win fueled the next. You can use the same principle. Let small victories create the momentum that carries you past your next fear.

Action Steps

  • Acknowledge your fear by naming it out loud, then write it down on paper to bring it into the light.
  • Ask "What is the worst that can happen?" and get honest with yourself; the floor is rarely as bad as the fear tells you.
  • Act anyway. Do the things that most people are not willing to do and remind yourself your best life is on the other side.
  • Stay present. When fear pulls you into the future, ask what one next step you can take right now.
  • Celebrate small wins and let each success build the momentum that carries you past the next fear.

Fear will always show up. It is natural, it is human, and it does not go away for the most accomplished people on the planet. Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Paul McCartney, and JK Rowling all faced the same fear you are facing. What separated them was the decision to act anyway.

It is never too late to start living the life you were meant to live. Standing on the other side of fear is where that life is waiting for you.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

welcome back to the daily mastermind george wright the third here with your daily dose of inspiration motivation and education i know what you're thinking i know what you're thinking you're like man george your voice sounds horrible but i i promise you that i am more committed to the process of supporting you on a daily basis than i am my voice so you have to bear with me here I've been doing a lot of speaking lately and some guest appearances and podcasts. So yesterday, yesterday we talked about failure and how you can reframe your view of failure in order to overcome your fears. But I had a lot of people hit me up and they were hitting me up with questions like, you know, George, that sounds really good, but how do I overcome my fears on a daily basis? I mean, give me some more tangible strategies. And you know me, I like those strategies. I like those specifics. So here we go. I actually pulled out. You've heard me talk about this before. I have an article that I have printed that I keep with me and it's, and it was done by Leo over at Zen Habits. And I want to share with you this article and some thoughts because it's all about how to overcome your fears on a daily basis. It's just really good reading. You might go check that out on zenhabits.net, but you know, fear of something bad happening in the future is one of the things that it just makes us human, right? Animals might fear an immediate danger that that's happening right now, but we're the only ones that fear something that might happen that could happen that isn't really happening we're making it up in our brain in our mind right we're playing out this scenario and this fear you know this fear a lot of people say is necessary but it really stops us from doing something um because of something that may or may not happen now now sometimes there are fears that are important and we got to understand that they're you know our brain is wired to protect us but i I found that most fears are completely unnecessary. And I think you'd agree with me on that. Most fears are things that'll probably never happen that are just keeping us from being our greatest versions of ourselves. So you might be letting all types of fears hold you back, like fear of failure, like we talked about yesterday, fear of abandonment, fear of rejection, fear of intimacy fear of success And believe it or not some people fear that success and money or maybe fear not being good enough and I think that last one is a real big one I think most people fear that they not going to be good enough and that's really the root of most other fears, their own self-esteem. You know we fear that we'll fail because we're not good enough, that we'll lose a relationship because we're not good enough, that we're not going to be able to handle the success. You know we fear intimacy for the same reason. We fear getting rejected. It's all because we don't think we're good enough. But here's the thing. Once you realize that having fear is natural, that's okay. But letting it stop you from going after your dreams, that's a mistake. That's a tragedy. You know, I did this in my life. Leo and his article talks about doing it in his life for decades as an adult and letting the fear keep him from doing what he wants to do. And I find it even And sometimes I still do that. And it turns out that as we look back on our life, just like Wayne Dyer likes to say, these fears are baseless. You know, they really are. And when you're able to start to overcome this fear of not being good enough and you can start putting things in perspective, that's when you're going to see results. That's when you're going to see things happen. You know, now still, even today, there's times when I feel like, you know, when I'm in front of tons of people, I may not be good enough to be in front of them. I'm speaking to a huge group and am I really the person that should be there? But listen, some of the most successful people on the planet, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Paul McCartney, JK Rowling, they all had the same fear, but they didn't let it stop them. So how can you not let your fear stop you? Because the greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure, right? So how do you beat your fears? Let's give you a couple of ideas and steps that you can use to overcome this. First, acknowledge your fear. So many times we try to avoid it. This is a huge step. If you just do this one thing and you acknowledge your fear, you're going to be able to face it. The second thing is write it down. I know that sounds kind of weird, but write it on a piece of paper. Writing it down is not only acknowledging you have it, but it's bringing it to the light of day. You know, it's something that lets you take control over it. It's like when I say journaling helps you because journaling helps you to really drive through your thoughts in more detail write it down because then you can create solutions to overcome it Third feel the fear You know it okay It not it not about pushing it way deep down inside or eliminate it or avoiding it. Feel it, acknowledge it. You know, even the most amazing, you know, people, Jessica Alba, Al Pacino, they all have fears. They all talk about that. These are just examples of successful people that have all said they had to push fear back in order to push through to get to the best life that they've now started to live. So feel your fear. Four, ask yourself this. And I do this all the time when I'm scared about a situation I want to go through. What's the worst thing that can happen? Often it's really not as bad as we think. And if you can handle, you're not going to die. You're not going to, I mean, we're talking about fears that are overcomable, right? Fears that, you know, the worst possible thing that happened, that you're going to be broke, that you're going to lose a relationship, that you're going to be rejected, that you're going to fail at some venture you're going to do. Worst case scenario, you know, you're going to learn the lesson, you know, you're going to keep surviving, you know, you're going to keep moving. Just ask yourself, what's the worst that can happen? Because when you can get good with the worst case scenario, everything else is a cakewalk. So ask yourself, what's the worst that can happen? The fifth thing, I mean, the bottom line is just do it. Act in spite of your mood, act in spite of your emotions, because when you can remind yourself that your success and your best life is on the other side of your fear, you push through it anyway. You just do the things that most people aren't willing to do. Another thing, number six, you could prepare yourself, prepare yourself for battle, be mentally strong, physically fit, mentally awake, um, plan and prepare and, and, and, and be ready to know that no matter what you will make it through it. Number seven, be in the moment. Here's the thing, fear of failure and other similar fears are fears in the future. You know, we get caught up with worrying about what might happen. Instead of just banishing all the thoughts of the future, it's not even happened yet. Stop thinking about the future or making a mistake or failure and focus on right now, just right now. What do you need to do next? Take one step. Just do it in the moment. Find yourself thinking about the moment and bring yourself to that point where you can just take that next step and you not caught up in what going to happen afterwards That a big one Be in the moment Number eight small steps Conquering fears and pursuing a life goal is, is, is it's overwhelming. It's intimidating. So start small, just take little steps, one foot in front of the other. Like I said, a few minutes ago, just doing this, you know, that's how you get up a mountain. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other small steps. Number nine, celebrate every success. I love this one because every single thing you do, celebrate it, even the smallest things and use these feelings of success and victory to propel you, to propel you past any fears that you have on things you do in the future. Bill Gates describes a spiral of success that he used to build Microsoft up from its early success of, you know, MS-DOS to its success as Windows and Word, Excel, Internet Explorer. Use that idea of spiraling yourself to success and that'll push you past your fears. I really hope that you will do everything you can to start doing what I talked about yesterday and view your failures differently because it'll help you to deal with your fears. And then today, push past your fears. Don't wait till things happen, prepare yourself to deal with fear. Prepare yourself with strategies and tools and tips and support and people and all the things you need, music, pictures, vision boards, whatever it is you need to push you through fear because standing on the other side of fear is going to be your greatest life. Standing on the other side of failure and fear is going to be the life that you've been waiting for, the life that you know is going to make you feel better, is going to make you more happy. It's going to make you more fulfilled. And it's the one that's going to help you to impact other people. You don't impact other people when you run away from your fears. So find that stuff in your life you need to be dealing with and hit it head on. I know you can do it. Like Les Brown always says, you have greatness inside of you. That's my message for today. And I hope you use it in your life. Share this message. Share this podcast for me. If you would do that, it would mean the world to me. I'll look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. Have a great day. Thank you.

About the host
George Wright III, host of The Daily Mastermind

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

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