If You’re Scared You’re Winning (2019)
While I certainly wouldn&#x27;t want to be terrified every minute of my work day (that seems like it&#x27;d lead to adrenal collapse), I have found that when I lean into discomfort, I learn more and grow more. For example, in my current job, my boss really wanted me to record some videos. I resisted (had plenty of other work to do, videos wouldn&#x27;t be that useful, yadda yadda). But the real reason was that I was uncomfortable with the entire process, from script writing to recording to publishing.<p>After enough pushing, I recorded the first video. It was not great, but I learned something. Two things, really. First, I learned some technical stuff (what software to use, how to edit, etc). Second, I learned that this task, which I&#x27;d built up in my mind as something super scary, wasn&#x27;t that bad. It wasn&#x27;t great (and I definitely wasn&#x27;t great at it) but I could do it.<p>I continued to record videos and after the fifth one or so, it got much much easier. I was still learning and improving, but it became just another task, not a monumental task. And now I have a new skillset.<p>There are times in my career where I leaned into a task that I was afraid of and didn&#x27;t have the same positive outcome, but in general at work the fear around a task has been far worse than the actual task.