Fearless at Work: Achieve Your Potential by Transforming Small Moments into Big Outcomes

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STRETCHING CRITICAL MOMENTS

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

—Anaïs Nin

So far you’ve read a lot about identifying moments in which we practice new habits that lead to remarkable results. But what if the moment itself can be expanded?

Extreme athletes and other peak performers do this all the time. They have learned to stretch critical moments, to see options and grab them in the heat of a conflict or crisis. Instead of pushing away fear during critical turning points, they embrace it.

Sometimes this skill is the difference between life and death. Mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary, the first Western person to summit Mount Everest, noted this when he said, “The feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it ...