There are not a lot of things in this world that do not scare me at some level. Everything from driving my car to watching a movie to eating at a restaurant. There is always the notion of "what if" lurking somewhere in my head.
What if I get a flat driving on the interstate with my kid depending on me for safety? What if the movie, that we waited for so long and invested so much effort into watching, is a dud? What if the restaurant's definition of hygiene and mine do not meet and I go home with a food borne disease?
The same fear accompanies me to work. What if a bad or hasty decision on my part leads me to play a part in negatively impacting someone's career? What if I do not invest enough time in choosing a solution for my team and client that leads to short term gain but a long term problem?
There are, indeed, a lot of "what if's".
Every day there is a struggle to be more and do more. Every day, with a shrinking world, our lives are becoming harder and easier (depending on what you do and who you ask). In times like these, what would I gain from being scared all the time?
I treat my fear as a motivating agent. Instead of cowering in fear, I try and do something about it.
With my son in the car, for example, I take extra care to drive safe. With the dependency that my team has on me, I do not rush to decisions. They are a lot more deliberate. To not get out of date with the knowledge of my art, I try to read and learn continuously.
Yes, I might not have an end for my fears, but I do realize that the only way over it is through it.
I like clarity in what I do. I would like to think that a lot of us do. Clarity, however, needs a few questions to be answered.
The most important question after we figure out WHAT we are doing is WHY we are doing it. If there is a reason to our effort, our deed is not in vain. Even if we falter, our attempt has a direction and a purpose.
What we do, coupled with why we are doing it, definitely answers 2 of the 3 most important questions.
Now to the third question. HOW do we do what we do if we know why we are doing it?
Here is my belief. If we know why we are doing something, we would know exactly how to do it.
By keeping the end result in mind (WHAT) and the reason to do it (WHY), the HOW would make itself very evident.
Take, for example, our intent to become good citizens of a country. That is what we want to do. We want to do it so the country that we represent is well projected (one of the many examples of why we would want to be model citizens). If we really believe in what we are doing and why we are doing it, there might be little need for written laws. We would all know how to do what we want to do.
Good leadership and parenting are other examples (in many more) of what we might want to accomplish. We want to become better leaders and parents to help nurture individuals with a capacity to think and lead in their own way. Again, how we do that can become very clear to us, almost automatically, as long as we answer the WHAT and the WHY.
The what and the why answer 2/3 of the questions that we would need to accomplish results and taste success. As long as we do that, how we do that should come very naturally to us.
