From Fear to Freedom

Its a beautiful thing. In owning our worst fears, acknowledging that they are a part of us, we tame them. The irony is that accepting fear as part of you means being less driven by that fear. This book will help you move from this kind of fear to this kind of freedom.

Part I of this book, The People in Your Neighborhood, considers the makeup of six business types: the worrier , the controlle r, the fake , the attention-seeker , the victim , and the prisoner . Using case histories, we will explore each type in detail. Chances are, you work for or with several of these types. Or you are one of them yourself. One thing you will notice is that each of the people referred to in the book made dramatic strides in effectiveness when they learned to accept themselves .

Part II, Hell Is Not Just Other People, explores the Transcendence Model in detail. The problem is not just outside usthe people we work withbut often is inside us. Well see how we spend so much of our time assessing whether we like what we see in our livesour jobs, the people around us, the politics, the media, the physical world. And well define the role of that assessment in the various emotions that drive us. This involves looking at the distinction between two types of thoughts. We have thoughts about the facts of the worldsuch as that you are reading this sentence right nowand we have opinions about those facts. A key point well play with is that life is so much sweeter when we place our attention on the facts and resist the temptation to reach our opinions. We will wrestle with the pressure to reach opinions in our jobs even though the opinions get us into personal and professional trouble. Well learn about the need to strike a balance between these opposing positions .

The main topic of the final section of this bookPart III, Moving from Fear to Freedomis your ongoing progress. We will talk about your personal thinking patterns as they relate to patterns in your emotional responses and behaviors relating to the types in this book. Well label your personal pattern your operating strategy , the way you evaluate things in your life and how you personally respond to your evaluations.

Processing your feelings is a key component of this part of the book. This might feel like the hard stuff. Youll discover how your experience of who you are in any given moment intimately links to whatever is crossing your mind. If you are angry , then you, well, are angry. You ˜˜become whatever crosses your mind. A goal might be for you to become the possessor of your feelings rather than the feelings themselves. Well look at how you can make such a shift.

Of course, if feelings come from the judgments we make, and one goal is to resolve feelings, it makes good sense to learn about how to stop judging ourselves . We will also consider means to stop judging others, since many peopleand workplacesget into trouble based on habits related to this behavior.

Another focus of this part of the book is the nature of personal commitment. You will see how learning about your operating strategy, processing your feelings more effectively, and learning to preempt certain emotional responses before getting hooked by them opens you up to the possibility of significantly improved ˜˜willpower and capacity to commit.

In the final chapters of the book we will look at operating in a place where you are free of harmful thinking habits and can even experience optimal human happiness. We will also explore the topic of living with personal transcendence.

If you think of one of the most impressive and effective business-people you know, that person probably is in touch with whoever is in her presence in an attentive and compassionate way; she is very focused on achieving targets and is very intentional; and she is not inclined to blame but rather seeks solutions and appropriate action. A major thesis of this book is that this mind-set can be created and sustained.

Working and living in a place of personal transcendence implies we are holding judgment in abeyance, so we are not involved in blaming. We have a sense of where we want to go, as opposed to our fear of failure blocking the dream. We take responsibility for getting there, as opposed to fearing the blame for not having already arrived. We have confidence in our ability to achieve the goal, as opposed to letting our fears deplete our conviction . We have the ability to set our ego aside so that we can listen to the input of others, as opposed to having to hide our true self because of our fears of being found out.

I am convinced that if there is such a thing as ˜˜enlightenment for those of us in the business world, it emanates from transcending the struggles of ego and simply staying focused on the job at hand. It is worry free, empowering, and of clear conscience. Yes, it is hard work to achieve this, but it is well within reach. It is very personal, but only for a while. It certainly helps get the job done. Free of politics around us and, in a sense, within us, theres even time to spare for balance in our lives.