Flying Without a Net

CHAPTER TWELVE

Don’t Blink

IF YOU BLINK, YOU BECOME INDECISIVE, uncertain, and passive. When high-need-for-achievement professionals become mired in anxiety-producing traps, they tend to think too much and act too little. In other words, individuals won’t try something new, will shy away from an innovative approach, or will decide not to make the commitment they promised themselves they’d make. Blinking means hesitating and falling back on old behaviors because of fear of the unknown. Blinking means holding on to the past, to the stories you’ve told yourself that keep you imprisoned in old behaviors and ways of thinking and of seeing yourself. Blinking, essentially, is refusing to pull the trigger when deep inside you know it needs to be pulled. ...