(synth music) Talk to me about how you view fear because there's so much fear in the photo industry. People are afraid to make mistakes. They're afraid to get called out. They're afraid to do shitty work. They're afraid to be called out on something, and a lot of that keeps creative people in a little shell. So. Fear is a real driver, and it has been for me as well in the past, whether it was athletics, or writing, or academia, or whatever it might have been. And I realized that it's a driver based on risk, and that's when people define risk, or should define risk, as the possibility of an irreversible negative outcome. And what I mean by that is, just like most people fail to achieve their goals because they're poorly defined, most people are prevented from doing things based on fear because it's poorly defined. There's a couple things we all probably fear. Being judged unfairly. Not being able to provide for our loved ones and our family. Death and losing people that we love. I...

think those are a lot of things, but the fear ourselves are often about the fear of being able to be acknowledged, and/or the fear of failing, and people looking at you as a failure. And so our brain wants a story, and our brain likes a story that pitches bad guys, good guys, safe and dangerous. And so the stories we make up normally are our worst fears, and turn the people that are in our stories into enemies. It's the same as somebody else saying, "I'm not good enough." It's the same as somebody else saying, "no one's gonna like what I have to do." It's just a bullshit nonsense lie you tell yourself that's not healthy for you or the work. Right? You have no idea what's gonna happen tomorrow. No idea. You have no idea that this thing you're writing, or doing or that you think is the best thing ever, you have no idea if anyone else is gonna like it. You operate, I'd like to say uncertainty is a very confident place to be. Really, the more you can sort of let go. Though you have no idea about what's gonna happen in the future, you have no idea about what other people are gonna connect with it or not, and just do it, and try to make it your best. Put all your heart and love and care into it, and then be unattached. You wanna be accepted, and you have to always second guess yourself. I second guess myself everyday, right? And it's the fear of saying, there's no point in my life that I didn't have fear, and I call it a healthy paranoia in business. Fool was doing well. Okay well, a hot clothing line last five years, Daymond, did you get bit by the apple? Did you bite the apple once or get hit by lightning? No, I gotta share this idea of who I am with the world. I wanna empower other entrepreneurs, but I'm dyslexic. I'm gonna write a book? Are you kidding me? People are gonna laugh at me, right? Fear of am I leaving my daughters inheritancy or a legacy? How will they perceive me? Fear of making my daughters public people, where now they have pressure on them, and I wanna hide them from everybody, or fear of anything else, you know? The President of the United States, President Obama, made me a Presidential Ambassador for global entrepreneurship. I can never let him down. It's always gonna be some level of fear, and that fear is good if it's healthy. I've just never done anything that's turned out to be valuable that wasn't just scared shitless to do it. Everything I've ever done that's ever really made a contribution, I have felt alone in doing it, and afraid, but alive. After the first time that you opt to brave the wilderness, you pull away from what a group of people thinks, maybe it's your creative community, it's your critics, but the first time you pull away, and find power in standing on your own, I think your heart is marked by the wild. I think you belong in and to the wilderness in a different way because every time after that, when you choose fitting in over belonging to yourself, it's painful, and so to me, the whole idea is not just navigating the wilderness, which I think every poet, and theologian, and writer over time has used the wilderness as kind of this lone journey thing. It's not just about navigating the wilderness, it's about becoming the wilderness. It's about becoming, I am going to be on my own a lot, and it's going to be okay because there is beauty and strength in that, and it's not that I won't ever find great joy in being a part of something, but I will always belong to and believe in myself first. There are so many things that you do in business and in life that are really driven by deep insecurity and the need to fill ego, verses the things that actually matter to you. I also think you're one decision away from a totally different life because when you're the kind of person that's sleeping in everyday and waking up and feeling like a loser, and you make one decision that all you're gonna do is actually just get up, no matter how painful it is, what happens is that one decision make you see yourself differently because of the action you're taking. So what I tend to do, if I find myself paralyzed or indecisive, is I'll write down all the worst-case scenarios. Really get hi-def in the absolute specific worst case scenarios, then the second column is what I could do to prevent, anything I could do to prevent those specific items, and then if they happen, what I could do to reverse those or minimize the damage from each of those outcomes. And you find once you do that, that the worst case scenarios are very seldom as bad as you'd envisioned. It's just the nebulous, dark-- When you haven't defined anything. Fantasm of a bad outcome that prevents you from taking action. What you actually realize, oh, worst case scenario: I go back to my last job. Worst case scenario: I take a part time job doing this. Worst case scenario: I have to suck it up for a month or two. Do twice as much work with that one client I don't like, and then this. Then it really doesn't seem as scary, and you can actually move ahead with things. The moment you catch yourself hesitating, or doubting, or starting to worry, or about to chicken out, or shrink, or shut-up, or whatever it is that you're about to do, that is shrinking your power, you just go, five, four, three, two, one. You count backwards, five, four, three, two, one. By counting backwards, the cheat code that you're doing in your mind is you are interrupting what are called habit loops that get encoded in the central part of your brain, and you are starting up the prefrontal cortex. It's a little trick that causes focus. I'd like to say that uncertainty is a very confident place to be. Really the more you can let go of, though you have no idea about what's gonna happen in the future. You have no idea about whether people are gonna connect with it or not, and just do it, and try to make it your best, and put all your heart, and love, and care into it. And then be unattached. Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don't belong 'cause you will always find it. Stop walking through the world looking for evidence that you're not enough because you will always find it. Your self worth and your belonging is not something that we negotiate externally. It's something we carry in our wild hearts, and if we spend our lives looking everywhere we go for evidence that I don't really belong in this meeting, I'm not really an artist, I just do this on the side, and this is my side hustle, but it's not really my job. Or we keep comparing ourselves, you will find exactly what you're looking for. My inspiration is like, embrace your fears, accept them, and do it anyway. (pensive music)

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Chase Jarvis

CHASE JARVIS is an award-winning artist, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and one of the most influential photographers of the past 20 years.  His expansive work ranges from shooting advertising campaigns for companies like Apple, Nike, and Red Bull; to working with athletes like Serena Williams and Tony Hawk, to collaborating with renowned icons like Lady Gaga and Richard Branson.<br>

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topics covered in this class

Creative Inspiration Free Business Classes Entrepreneurship Self-Improvement

Ratings and Reviews

Dream Focus Studio

By far the best classes on Creative Live!! Thanks Chase Jarvis for bringing so much greatness to the table for discussion! Just LOVE it!

René Vidal

@ChaseJarvis - love chat with Gabby about hope and the "relentless optimism" you share at the end of Creative Calling. Many thanks. -- René Vidal McKendree Tennis

bob

Excellent interview with thoughtful questions. Thanks!!

2,000+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

Make Fear Your Friend

Make Fear Your Friend

Lesson Info

152. Make Fear Your Friend

Lessons

How to Find Your Purpose Through Grief and Loss with Tunde Oyeneyin

What is the Meaning of Life? with Tony Nader

Weirdness is the Key to Self Improvement with Marcus Buckingham

How to Unlock the Key to Continuous Innovation with Tony Fadell

Talent is Bullsh*t with Steven Pressfield

Finding Self When No One Is Looking with Jason Reynolds

Does Cold Water Exposure Really Have Scientific Backing with Dr. Mark Harper

Heal Your Past with Sheleana Aiyana

How An Unconventional Path Got Nabil Ayers To President Of One Of The Most Influential Music Labels

All the Hacks to Maximize Your Life with Chris Hutchins

Happiness is an Inside Job with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

The Power of Regret with Daniel Pink

Data-Driven Life Decisions with Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Escape Purgatory of the Mundane With Radical Confidence with Lisa Bilyeu

Transform the Quality of Your Life with Tony Robbins

Strengthen Your Intuition & Unlock Your Inner Wisdom with Amber Rae

Make Your Message Heard with Victoria Wellman

Susan Cain: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

Can Food Turn Us Into Geniuses with Max Lugavere

Peace Is a Practice with Morgan Harper Nichols

Creativity Hates Complacency with Maria Brito

A Love Letter to Human Potential with Kate Robinson

How to Build Confidence and Be More Social with Vanessa Van Edwards

Trauma Is Wreaking Havoc On Our Lives with Gabby Bernstein

Take The Leap, Start a Business with Payal Kadakia

What Every Creator Should Know About NFTs with Tom Bilyeu

40 Seconds To Fame Or Failure with Apolo Ohno

Unlock the Power of Nonverbal Communication with Joe Navarro

Living Shouldn't Hurt with Aaron Alexander

Ego, Disrupted. How Buddhist Wisdom Meets Western Therapy with Dr. Mark Epstein

Words Can Take You Anywhere with Arianna Davis

Master Your Inner Voice with Dr. Ethan Kross

Accelerating 10,000 Hours to Mastery with James Altucher

Transform Your Mind in 12 Minutes a Day with Dr. Amishi Jha

Powerful Habits to Ease Anxiety and Boost Productivity with Mel Robbins

The Art of Self-Reinvention with Malcolm Gladwell

Creative Acts of Curious People with Sarah Stein Greenberg

Self-Discovery, Activism, and Rock & Roll with Stevie Van Zandt

Why Design Matters with Debbie Millman

Discover Work that Makes You Come Alive with Jonathan Fields

Releasing Trauma and Mastering Your Emotions with Jason Wilson

Food Saved Me with Danielle Walker

Changing Our Relationship with Rest with Chelsea Jackson Roberts

Retracing Passion to Build Lasting Career Success with Chris Bosh

Old School Photography + Other Musings with Kai Wong

Escalate and Evolve: A Blueprint for Career and Life with Ben Uyeda

The Stories That Hold Us Back with Jon Acuff

Poetry, Vulnerability and Finding Your Voice with Jericho Brown

What Does it Take to be Backable with Suneel Gupta

Unlocking Creativity, Courage and Success with Rebecca Minkoff

How To Heal From Your Past with Dr. Nicole LePera

That Will Never Work with Marc Randolph

The Real Cost of Your Dream Life with Rachel Rodgers

Your Network is Your Insurance Policy with Jordan Harbinger

Dream First, Details Later with Ellen Bennett

We're Never Going Back with Harley Finkelstein

How to Shatter Limitations and Achieve Your Dreams with Steven Kotler

The Creative Art of Attention with Julia Cameron

The Path Back to True Self with Martha Beck

Upgrade Your Brain and Learn Anything Quickly with Jim Kwik

The Urgent Need for Stoicism with Ryan Holiday

Delicious Food Doesn't Have to be Complicated with Julia Turshen

Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention with Erin Meyer

Stop Living On Autopilot with Antonio Neves

How to Tackle Fear and Live Boldly with Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable with Jamie Kern Lima

Hard Work + The Evolution of Self with Priyanka Chopra Jonas

The Power of Idealism with Samantha Power

Pushing the Limits with Extreme Explorer Mike Horn

Fast This Way with Dave Asprey

Uncomfortable Conversations with Emmanuel Acho

Why Conversation Matters with Rich Roll

Elevating Humanity Through Business with John Mackey

When Preparation Meets Opportunity with Paul Ninson