I always had an inkling I wanted to take a sabbatical from work. 

I remember chatting about it with my best mate at least 4 or 5 years before I eventually bit the bullet and asked my boss if I could take a 6 month sabbatical.

So why didn’t I ask for it sooner?

Well, I could use practicalities as an excuse.  For one reason or another (moving home, my role at work changing etc etc), it never seemed to be the right time.

But these were just excuses to hide the real reason.

That reason?  

Fear.

Looking back, I can see I was afraid of what taking a sabbatical would mean for my career.  I was also afraid of what my colleagues would think about me.  

This is a theme which has reared its ugly head on multiple occasions:

*** When I knew it was time to quit my job but kept kicking the can down the road, fear was standing in my way too.  This time it was a fear of letting my family down, fear of running out of money, fear of not knowing what I’d do next and fear that I was throwing away a career I’d invested 13 years into.

Part of me was also afraid I was making the wrong decision (meta meta, nothing better!)

*** When I decided to start sharing more personal stuff in my daily emails, there was also a bucketload of fear.  I was afraid that people might criticise me, judge me or reject me if I shared too openly.

(by the way, I can still feel some of this fear right now, as I write these words)

*** Same thing when it came to starting my coaching business.  I lost months to being afraid of not knowing what I was doing business-wise and that I might get something good going, then mess it up.  Completely illogical when you put these two fears side by side, but what can I tell you?  Those fears were still there

*** When I was pondering a return to gainful employment and going back to my old job (same boss, same team, same work - very nearly even the same desk!) I had a lot of thinking & mental dilly-dallying about whether going "back" was the same as going "backwards".  And I was afraid of what that meant and how it might be viewed.  I'll probably write more about this in a future email - lots more I could say

Fear rules the roost in so many ways.  

And it can be difficult to spot.  Fear is a master & mistress of disguise and often "dresses up" as fence-sitting or hesitation.

Yet it’s still possible to pull the trigger on the decisions which are right for us without letting fear take control.

The more I see this, the more cool stuff I get up to.

Like, for instance, recording a podcast with Mark Crossfield recently or running 10 weeks of Mindset Workshops for colleagues at work. 

In the past, fear would’ve called the shots on these too.  

The ideas might’ve crossed my mind, but I wouldn’t have followed up on them.  

And this would’ve been a pity.

Life feels richer when I’m following my nose, making decisions and taking action based on what feels meaningful, interesting or fun rather than not making those decisions because fear is centre stage.

That’s not to say I’ve somehow mastered fear.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.  I know fear is still present for me every single day in heaps of different ways.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen & learnt a few things.  Especially about turning down the fear dial when it comes to making decisions.

I’ll be sharing more about this in my Decisions on Demand Zoom webinar tomorrow, Wednesday 19^th June, at 10am PST/1pm EST/6pm UK Time.

The webinar will be free and it will last about an hour.

If you’d like to join, it’s time to get crack-a-lackin’.  Hit reply and I’ll send the Zoom details straight over.

And if you’ve got any questions, feel free to hit reply too.

That’s all for today

 - Tom