Performance Principles™
February 1, 2004
Driving Through Your Fears
Last winter I was driving from Vermont to New Hampshire for a meeting. As I headed south, a true New England blizzard set in. The visibility was steadily decreasing. Cars were skidding on the highway.
I still had two hours to go in my trip. So I pulled over and called the hotel where I was heading to check on the weather there. The front desk informed me that the skies there were clear. Thinking that I could drive through the storm, I got back in my car and kept going.
The snowstorm got worse. Now, I was literally creeping along. Again I pulled over, this time at a tourist information office. The staff checked the weather on-line for me. The weather report indicated that the storm should already be moving past us. Yet the snow continued to fall.
I got back in my car, and told myself that I would keep going just a little bit further. Just as I considered pulling over for a third and final time, I drove right out of the storm. Where moments before there had been blinding white, now the skies were clear and the road was wide open.
Performance Principle: Sometimes you have to drive through your own fears. While my fear told me to pull the car over, the facts told me to keep going. In difficult times, our fears try to grab the wheel. But our minds tell us that things are better than they seem. In times like this, the worst thing we can do is to obey our fears. When the facts disagree with your fears, let the facts win.
Helen Keller once said - Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. When your emotions are running wild, but the data tell a more hopeful picture, don’t give into your fears. Drive through them.
Until next month,
Eric.
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