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Fear Isn't Telling You to Stop. It's Pointing You Where to Go! · The Nadia Chapman Show

• 0:06
  Well, hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Nadia Chapman Show.
• 0:09
  I'm your host, Nadia Chapman.
• 0:12
  I hope you're doing well, and thank you for tuning in, because if you read the
• 0:16
  title of this podcast, you might think that fear is a stop sign.
• 0:22
  Well, I'm here to tell you that fear is a compass, okay?
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  And I'm going to kick off our time together by asking you something.
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  Have you ever had one of those moments where you were about to do something
• 0:34
  and then maybe it was, you know, make a phone call, make a post,
• 0:38
  hit publish, I don't know, apply for a job or signing up for a big competition.
• 0:44
  Maybe if you're at school, it was like raising your hand. It can be very subtle,
• 0:48
  you know, or just having a conversation. I don't know, start a business.
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  And then suddenly your brain starts screaming.
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  Abort mission. This is a terrible idea. Hmm.
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  Your palms get sweaty and your stomach is flipping and your heart is racing.
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  And then you're like, oh my God, you're thinking, this must be a sign that I'm not ready. Hmm.
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  But what if, what if it's actually the opposite?
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  What if that feeling that you're having inside of you, that feeling you've been
• 1:21
  trying to avoid is pointing you exactly where you're supposed to go?
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  And today I want to completely change the way you think about fear because here's
• 1:31
  the truth. Fear isn't the stop sign. Fear is the compass. So let's dive in together.
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  Here's something that we forget very easily.
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  As human. Your brain is very old. It's very ancient.
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  It functions in very old ways.
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  Seriously, all right? It hasn't changed much in thousands of years.
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  We've evolved, but our brain is still the same. We call it the critter brain
• 2:00
  too sometimes. And by that, I mean that back then, fear meant there could be
• 2:04
  danger over here or there's a lion over here.
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  I need to stay alive. And fast forward to today in 2026, and there's no lions
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  in your office, all right?
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  There's no saber through tiger hiding behind your podcast microphone,
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  you know, but your brain, it doesn't know the difference.
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  So it will treat a situation like giving a presentation or posting a video,
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  or if you were a figure skater, something like, okay, trying a new job,
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  it will treat that the same way as something very dangerous.
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  And it's trying to protect you. It's that simple. Not because the thing,
• 2:39
  the action you're about to take is dangerous, but because it's so unfamiliar
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  and your brain really loves everything familiar.
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  The other day I was doom scrolling, like marinating, just going through reels.
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  And one was really interesting. It was a reel about old people.
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  Somebody went into an old folks home and start interviewing people.
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  Senior citizens and asking them what was their biggest regrets.
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  And it's rarely, oh, I wish that I stayed comfortable. Nobody said that. Nobody says that.
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  Oh, I'm glad that I play safe in my life every single time. Instead,
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  they said like, oh, I wish I've tried harder.
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  Or I wonder what would have happened if I did this or that. Or I should have gone for this.
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  Fear talks to us out of things constantly. And one of the things that is dearest
• 3:28
  to me when I talk to people is help them. Help them get unstuck.
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  Go live your life. Step into your life. Stop hesitating. Do the things that scare you.
• 3:38
  Fear talks us out of so many things. And you don't want to live with regrets.
• 3:43
  I remember so many moments in my own life where fear showed up.
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  Traveling with my backpack around the world when I was a teenager and then moving
• 3:51
  across countries and starting coaching and Even learning English,
• 3:55
  because if you don't know, English is not even my first language.
• 3:58
  You know, launching this podcast or putting myself on social media,
• 4:02
  creating workshop. I've done so many things.
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  Every single time there was an amount of fear. Fear arrived first.
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  If I had waited until fear completely disappeared, I would still be waiting.
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  There would be no Nadia Chapman show. There would be no of anything I do right now.
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  So maybe you've been there too, waiting to feel ready, waiting for that confidence
• 4:24
  to kick in and waiting until you're good enough. But I'm going to tell you something.
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  Those days rarely come first.
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  You know, confidence doesn't create action.
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  Action creates confidence. I repeat that all the time.
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  So look at your life and let me ask you this question. What if fear is a green light?
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  Imagine you're driving and every time you see a green light,
• 4:48
  you slam on the brakes. It sounds pretty stupid, right?
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  Well, that's exactly what many of us do with fear. Fear shows up and, okay, hold on, we stop.
• 5:00
  What if? What if? What if?
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  What if fear isn't telling you to stop? What if it's saying something like, this matters?
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  You know, this is important or this could change your life.
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  Think about that for a second. The things that scare you the most often sit
• 5:18
  right next to the life that you want.
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  And maybe that is your writer downer for today. All right. The things that scare
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  you the most often sit right next to the life you want.
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  The dream, the relationship, the promotion, the competition, the performance.
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  Fear isn't blocking the door.
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  It's standing right next to it. So let's go back to the compass.
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  Imagine that you're hiking through, I don't know, a forest and you pull out a compass, right?
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  The compass is not going to tell you like, oh, this path will be easy.
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  It doesn't promise you sunshine. It doesn't remove the rocks in the way or the
• 6:05
  falling trees or, you know, the hills.
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  It simply points, right? It points towards your destination, where you want to go.
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  Fear works the exact same way. Ask yourself, what am I avoiding?
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  What conversation? What opportunity? What dream? What am I avoiding?
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  Because chances are, that's exactly where your growth is hiding. Thank you.
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  When I have sessions with clients and we identify the fears,
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  well, the next step is to move right through that fear, right through it.
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  That's exactly where growth is hiding. So your question is not,
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  how do I stop feeling afraid? The question is, what is fear trying to point me towards?
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  And let me remind you that there is a huge price tag attached to your comfort,
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  to your little comfort zone. You know, comfort is so sneaky.
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  It makes you feel so safe. But comfort has a cost. Every year that you stay
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  where you are because you're afraid,
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  you're making a trade. You're trading possibility for predictability.
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  You're trading growth for comfort. And you're trading a whole lot of potential.
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  A lot of potential just to keep things familiar.
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  So here's the kicker. Comfort today often creates regret tomorrow.
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  And I know you're listening right now thinking about, oh my God,
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  but I'm not that courageous.
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  Well, guess what? People imagine that courage is this huge dramatic moment that
• 7:37
  kind of shows up, you know, standing on a stage or jumping out of an airplane or giving a TED Talk.
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  No, real courage looks so much smaller. It's really is as easy as sending the
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  email, post the video, or walking into practice with your head high after a
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  bad competition. All right.
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  Courage is unusually quiet. It whispers.
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  I'm scared. Okay. But guess what? I'm going to do it anyway.
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  So here's your challenge for this week. I want you to grab a notebook and write one sentence.
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  What have I been avoiding because I'm afraid? And I want you to be brutally, brutally honest.
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  Then underneath that, write, what's one tiny step I can take this week?
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  Not next week, not next year, not when you're confident, not when you're unafraid.
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  This week, one tiny step.
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  Maybe it's making the phone call or signing up for something.
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  Maybe it's practicing the jump.
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  Maybe it's sending a job application or whatever it is. Small courage changes lives.
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  Before I finish, I want you to think about this for a second.
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  Imagine looking back on your life, like, I don't know, 20 years from now, which would hurt more?
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  Failing at something that you truly wanted and you went for it or never trying
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  because that fear convinced you not to.
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  Fear will always have something to say, no matter who you are in life,
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  no matter what you're doing, what you've achieved, and how old you are,
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  fear will always have something to say. That's his job.
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  But fear doesn't get to vote, guys. You do.
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  So next time that your heart races and your hands are shaking and your brain
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  starts shouting, oh my God, what if I look like an idiot and what if I fail?
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  Just smile. Maybe you're standing at the edge of something huge,
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  bigger than yourself, something extraordinary. All right.
• 9:41
  Thank you so much for spending this time with me. And if you're enjoying the
• 9:45
  show, I would love if you can leave a review or follow. It really helps these
• 9:49
  conversations reach as many people as possible.
• 9:52
  Until next time, be brave enough to feel the fear, guys, and be bold enough to take that step.
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  And maybe just be curious enough to see where your compass leads.
• 10:03
  You've got this. I'll see you in the next episode.