Episode 74: Moving Beyond Fear

When you're thinking about doing something new in education, or really anything else new fear can come up and get in the way. And this week, I've been having a lot of conversations with educators really feeling scared: scared to take the leap, scared to apply for jobs, even what's been coming up for many people is feeling scared that even if they get this job that they're really excited about, they won't know what to do, or they won't be able to cut it, or that it'll feel overwhelming.

So how do we move past it? In this episode, I'm going to give some tips for really trying to move past your fear, so that you can try new things out and get closer to what you want to achieve.

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Read the transcript for this episode:

Welcome to Educator Forever, where we empower teachers to innovate education. Join us each week to hear stories of teachers expanding their impacts beyond the classroom and explore ways to reimagine teaching and learning.

When you're thinking about doing something new in education, or really anything else new fear can come up and get in the way. And this week, I've been having a lot of conversations with educators really feeling scared: scared to take the leap, scared to apply for jobs, even what's been coming up for many people is feeling scared that even if they get this job that they're really excited about, they won't know what to do, or they won't be able to cut it, or that it'll feel overwhelming. And you can see in this example, that fear gets in our way, when we're feeling like maybe we won't even be able to do this job. Or maybe we won't have the time. Or maybe we won't have the energy, it stops us from even applying, it stops us from even trying. So fear can be really annoying, because it gets in the way of our dreams. 


So how do we move past it? In this episode, I'm going to give some tips for really trying to move past your fear, so that you can try new things out and get closer to what you want to achieve.


First, I think really remembering that you have a lot of amazing experience as a teacher, you are an education expert. So when you're reading job descriptions, or you're thinking about starting a business, and you're feeling like I'm not enough, I want you to reframe that, and I want you to really know that you are an education expert. So think about what have you learned as a teacher? What are you really good at? What are your strengths? What do you bring to the table, you can think about writing notes about this, you can think about thinking about it or talking about this as if you were talking about someone else, it is often easier to brag on a friend or a colleague than it is to brag on ourselves. But I really want you to see that you're not bragging; you're telling the truth about your amazing experience. 


Then thinking about moving beyond the fear part of it is really laying into dreaming, and allowing yourself the time and the space to dream. So ask yourself, if I could do anything? What could I do? Who would I spend my time with? What would my day be like, and really allow yourself to have this creative exploration? If it was up to you? What would you focus on, and then even close your eyes, write down words, draw pictures, think about phrases that come to mind, and really come back to this practice as an ongoing exploration. As you do this, you'll get clear on what you want. And really centering that when fear comes up can be so helpful, we can go back to this reminder of what we want. 


Know that fear is part of the process for getting there. We can't wait for fear to go away. We have to do the things that we're interested in doing while feeling scared. Because I'll tell you that if we wait for fear to go away, we're going to be waiting a long time. Fear and excitement are two sides of the same coin. When we feel excited about something sometimes we often feel scared. When we feel scared about doing something new. Sometimes we often feel excited. So realizing that fear is gonna be there. And we have to just do the thing. Do it scared while building courage, and really celebrate that you've done this, celebrate that you took the risk that you tried the thing and then really let go of perfectionism. Going back to that first example that I shared, really thinking about when you get so forward thinking, realizing that maybe you won't be able to cut it or maybe you won't be able to do the thing. It can feel paralyzing, because it feels like we have to be perfect. But we learn how to do the thing by doing it. So if you're scared that when you get your first curriculum writing job, you won't be able to do it. Know that as a teacher, you are an expert in learning, and that you can learn the skills that you need on the job. You of course can learn skills ahead of time and prepare for success and write curriculum samples and all sorts of good things. But there are always going to be new things to learn. And that's fantastic. Like how boring would it be to take on a job that we already know how to do” We learn new things by doing them. And so as you go into this next phase of your career really embracing new learning with a growth mindset. 


Another side of fear is it can feel really scary to actually honor our own desires and needs as teachers, as teachers, we have likely put everyone else first. And it feels uncomfortable to really prioritize our well being because it's different from what we're used to. So really, part of this is getting comfortable honoring your needs. And that comes with trusting your gut. If you're feeling like you're ready for a change, if you're feeling like you want to develop new skills, you owe it to yourself, to explore them, that I believe is true self care, being able to go after what you want to explore different things that feel interesting to you. And to play it out. Don't allow yourself to get stuck in your mind of what if, what if? What if try it imperfectly, and see how it goes. And as you do that, always go back to that dream space of like, what do I want to do? Maybe I could do it. See the possibilities along with the fear. It's all there. There are so many possibilities. And fear is like a blocker, as we go towards those possibilities. But fear can also be something that propels you forward. If you say hello to fear, make friends with beer, and then still do the thing, you'll realize that you have so many skills and so much resilience that you can take on challenging moments knowing that you might not always succeed, and that's okay. With the right mindset, you'll be able to overcome any hurdles. And along with that, you know, really creating as you push past the sphere into what you want, really creating a sustainable career for yourself, creating and cultivating joyful moments and really thinking about what you enjoy about education and leaning into that. Because if we're going to do things scared, we also need to do things with joy, right? Like, I want to be on the other side of fear, to be so much joy and possibility for you. 


So it comes with believing it's possible. It's definitely possible. And it comes with knowing it's not going to be easy to do anything new, there's gonna be fear, there's going to be unknown, there's going to be failure. All of that is how we learn. So really embracing, just like we do with students that we learn by doing new things we learn by failing, we learn by getting out of our comfort zone, we learn by being intentional, and really metacognitive as we learn, like reflecting on what we're learning, being very clear that we're going out to learn certain things, or that we're gonna practice doing things when we're scared. But again, I will repeat what I think is the most important thing here, which is not to wait until you don't feel scared. Because if you're excited, scared, if you're wondering what it would be like, the only way to get your answers is by trying it and moving past the fear. If you want a support system to help you with moving past that fear our educator forever network is a community of educators doing amazing work beyond the classroom. We have folks who are in the classroom, folks who have transitioned out of the classroom, all expanding their impact in education. And it is so much easier to take those risks, to try new things to put yourself out there to do the scary stuff. When you're in a loving community really holding you through the process and celebrating you along the way. We'd love to have you try it out.


Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Lily Jones