It is February.

I have daffodils on my worktable and the ones in my garden are waking up and poking through. I am looking for snowdrops and they should be out in the next few days. Trees and shrubs are budding and my grass looks to be growing. The days are noticeably longer now. People are already looking forward to half term and for many Valentine’s Day will bring lovely treats and surprises and much love. Spring is on its way.

So what am I thinking about?

Fear. Dark. Not very spring like and really unhelpful.

We all know about fear whether it something tiny like fear of being late or something enormous like an emergency on an aircraft.

I have been thinking about it because of having to tackle something scary physically as part of my recovery from the broken leg. However I have also been watching a Netflix series and one of the characters is that 17 year old teenager we all were, afraid of getting the next stage of their relationship wrong.

Now there is so much said and written about fear that Franke calls “the old dragon”. It is a primeval instinct. We know that there are three reactions to it: fight, flight and freeze.

Now I am never going to fight the grizzly bear he is out of my league. However I may have meaningful verbal discussions with people I work with or my family and friends. I am not afraid to take on issues with them even if I fear that something bad might result if I handle it clumsly.

Nor am I frightened to run away if the grizzly bear turns mean or avoid the car journey if there is lots of black ice about. Fleeing is healthy preservation behaviour provided it is from an active threat. Maybe if you are frightened of spiders or birds and it is a phobia there is a need to get it dealt with professionally. However flight is not really what has been occupying me. I think the worst of the fear responses is “freeze” because it causes us to procrastinate and sometimes we procrastinate so long that doing whatever it might be becomes unnecessary; except of course it doesn’t it just allows us to focus on something else and avoid it even longer.

Now the folklore that has grown up around fear says things like

Don’t stress just do it
There is nothing to fear except fear itself
Fake it until you make it
Or my favourite from Michael Rosen’s Going on a Bear Hunt” we cannotgo over it; we can’t go under it we have to go through it.

In a way all this advice is useful and it can get us through the immediate situation. It is a sticking plaster on the wound but it does not stop the fear coming again in a similar situation. If we really want to learn about ourselves and grow it is not enough.

Now at this stage you are probably asking what has this to do with business? As a business mentor my primary focus is on business development, the one role that we cannot delegate. We have to craft our aspirations for our business and then we have to make them reality. We cannot delegate. My job is to unearth what is getting in people’s way. I find it is usually fear. Choose any of the following:

I have always failed at that
I am no good at that
I hate that
I am paying my marketeer/accountant/ operations manager to do that
I should not need to ……….
I cannot admit that I cannot do that/do not know that/ do not understand that

I am saying we need to get to the bottom of why you fear something and then find a way to neutralise that fear and not just cover it up.

Fake it ‘til you make it is fine is in very short bursts otherwise it becomes exhausting and drains energy from other things you need to do. It is not a long term strategy. If you are frightened of closing the deal your marketeer has set up then you will be weighed down by this for your whole business life.

Now I would love to offer you the answer here but the answer depends on you: your training, how you were brought up, what you enjoy and do not enjoy, your experience. There is a need for lots of analysis.
However what I can do is offer you myself as a case study. Right back at the beginning of this Thought I talked of something physical for me that is scary and I have been frozen – not doing it! Lots of analysis in the wee small hours told me this:

I am frightened of failure
I fear that Ido not yet have enough strength.
I am frightened to take enough time for the manouvre
I do not trust the people around me to get me out of the situation if it goes pear-shaped.
I am not ready to go full speed ahead with my recovery just yet.

Now this is a real hotchpotch of reasons and now I have dragged them into the open I know why I freeze. So I made a plan:

Think about success. Kick out unhelpful thoughts.
Visualise it until it becomes automatic.
Have a routine – take three deep breaths before starting.
Only start when I am ready.
If it feels iffy then just go back to the deep breaths and start again.
Have faith in other people.
Have a round of applause when I succeed
And say well done me!

So please if you want to grow your business think where you are getting in your own way. If it is because you always freeze with fear at a certain point then analyse why and make a plan. Execute it!

2026 is the year when you finally face and beat the fear. If you want help with this then please contact me. We can find ways for you to walk forward without fear and enjoy success. I love speaking with people so why not have an off the meter conversation with me on a one to one basis? I want to meet you. We might want to work together in this exciting business world we both inhabit or we might not. Just to meet each other would be good and if I can help you explore possibilities for making your aspirations a reality that would be great.

So in 2026 let’s applaud your success!