Last week we moved for the fourth time in four years. I must admit, I was in denial the last few weeks before the big day. The schedule was full of appointments and events and dance competitions. The packing and purging loomed before me. Our elementary school was having a book bonanza so I ended up donating about 12 bags of books to the cause. It looked like I had robbed a library.
Three days before the move, just before dinner, my cell phone rang. It was my 13-year-old son’s friend saying, “Your son has been hit by a car on his bike. You should come!”
Every mother’s nightmare. I dropped what I was doing and ran. Thankfully after riding to the hospital by ambulance and getting all the tests done, he walked away with a few bruises. This reminded me that no matter where we lay our heads at night, the most important thing is being with the ones you love.
Author Tim Ferriss talks about something called fear setting instead of goal setting. A few times a year he makes a list of all the things he is scared of. Then he follows through with what would happen should that fear come true. He has even fasted or lived on oatmeal for a period of time to see if he could survive on very little. And of course he did. So then he wipes that fear off the list. And he can take action without worrying that he won’t survive the consequences.
Once the boxes were unpacked and the cupboards and shelves were full of books and plates and clothes after our move, I looked around and thought, “What was I so scared of?” As U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
So make the move, take the interview, meet the new person. Once you do it, you will realize you were being held back by the story in your head. And you can re-write that story any time you choose.