Kill the Fear of Following Your Passion

You have to passionately want to differentiate yourself from others. You must be inflamed about this idea. Not just because I want it for you but because you can’t imagine doing anything but going for it.

The shocking, surprising, and sad fact is that few people do have fire in their belly from passion and curiosity. There are many reasons why:

They don’t want the stress of success.

They are comfortable where they are, and they don’t want to change their work, geographic location, colleagues, or much of anything else.

They don’t want to have big goals only to fall short.

None of their friends or family members are striving for more and better.

They don’t think they are worthy or good enough. They think they are too young, too old, and too heavy, they are in the wrong function, or they have an inappropriate work pedigree.

They are afraid that people will think that they think they are special.

They tried once, it didn’t work, and they and don’t want to try again.

They don’t want to work long, hard hours. They are satisfied with doing whatever is minimally necessary.

They were told that people who make it to the top are thieves.

They are scared.

They have lost their ambition to do anything but tread water.

They don’t know what to do next.

 

If you have any of those unhelpful thoughts, you need to put them into your mental paper shredder. They do not support where you’re going in life. They might have come from your mom and dad or from some actual experiences, but you have to put a stop to them; otherwise, they will drain your energy. If instead, you get excited about doing whatever you are doing, you will get a sort of energy that puts you on an entirely different level than every other human being.

Picture of Debra Benton

Debra Benton

D.A. (Debra) Benton has been helping great individuals and organizations get even better for over 20 years. Just as exceptional athletes rely on excellent coaching to hone their skills, Debra's clients rely on her advice to advance their careers. She focuses on what is truly important to convert what you and your organization want to be from a vision into a reality. TopCEOCoaches.com ranks her in the World's Top 10 CEO Coaches noting she is the top female. And as conference keynote speaker she is routinely rated in the top 2%. Her client list reads like a “Who's Who” of executives in companies ranging from Microsoft, McDonald's, Kraft, American Express, Merrill Lynch, United Airlines, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to the Washington Beltway and U.S.Border Patrol. *She is the author of ten award-winning and best-selling business books including The Virtual Executive and CEO Material. She has written for the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fast Company. She has been featured in USA Today, Fortune, The New York Times, and Time; she has appeared on Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and CBS with Diane Sawyer. To learn more Debra advising leaders, coaching, facilitating a workshop, or speaking: www.debrabenton.com

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