Ockham Media

As mentioned in the previous post I was dealing with some major mental blocks in my career. Over the years I’ve adopted some fear-breaking techniques and thought I’d share what works for me. I use these techniques all the time without thinking about it. It only recently occurred to me that I could use them in a purposeful deliberate way.

When I am facing  fear to go after my dream/goal I:

3. Obsess on the vision. I know “obsess” is a pretty strong word. But when books like “The Secret” encroach our culture with, “just visualize what you want and next week it will magically show up” I feel obligated to say “BS!!” If it were really that simple we’d all be millionaires by now. So, here’s the thing… it’s NOT ENOUGH to merely want something. You have to want it BAADDD. You have to yearn for it pretty much constantly.You have to visualize yourself doing the scary thing and see it clearly over and over again. Also, you must be willing to make sacrifices to achieve the dream. When it comes time to make the sacrifice you should not be sitting there weighing the pros and cons of making the choice. If you are fully committed you will jump off that ledge without thinking twice and go for it! Many times we THINK we want something. But the moment we start going for it we get lazy or sabotage it. There’s nothing wrong with this. It might just mean we don’t really want it that much after all. So it’s best to be honest about that.

2. Baby Steps. When I begin working a new movie idea in my head I can easily become overwhelmed. In a state of overwhelm we usually end up doing NADA. So one trick I use is to establish the end in my mind, but then just let it go and ask, “What is one thing I can do TODAY regarding this project?” On this last music video project for example I used this technique. And literally I did something every single day that moved it closer to completion. Some days in complete stress from everyday-life-stuff, that one thing was sending a single email.  Celebrate! At least it’s something. When you work on something every day you create momentum. You may feel like you’re not getting anywhere, but at month’s end you look back and see you are 30 steps closer to creating your thing and that’s HUGE!! Here’s another thought… this last music vid project will take about 10 months start to finish. This is way too long by industry standards. Do you think I care? Ummm NO, I don’t. Throw any preconceived timeline OUT THE WINDOW. It doesn’t serve you.

1. Burn Your Bridges! We are always told to never burn our bridges, but in some situations it’s the best thing you can do for yourself and your goal! This technique is the most effective one… and also the most scary to employ. Here’s what I mean. Many times we set things up in a way that IF things go wrong we can back-out easily.  Imagine a guy who moved to a larger city to find more career opportunities for himself. Yet he kept his home back in the old small town  “just in case it doesn’t work out.”  I can guess what is going to happen with the guy, can’t you? Now, if he REALLY wanted to make it in the big city, he would “burn his bridges” and make it so he CAN’T go back NO MATTER WHAT! In this case he will be forced to find a way to work things out. When I know that fear is stopping me I will instigate the burn your bridges technique. It scares the crap outta me every time but it is EXTREMELY effective! I have pulled out creative solutions from myself that I had no clue even existed. It is very powerful. Burn, baby burn!

I’d love to hear what techniques you use to work through fear. What’s effective for you?