Five Ways Fear Holds Your Great Work Hostage

Fear doesn’t just show up when you are in danger.

It is also there when you are on the edge of something thrilling, like writing your book, finally starting ayour business, joining a movement, or creating art that matters.

The trouble is, fear sounds so reasonable that it can keep you circling your Great Work for years without you realizing that you’re holding your own Great Work hostage.

Below are five of its favorite tricks, and what to do instead.

1. Fear Pretends to Be Practical

It starts as sensible advice.
🤔 “I should get more training first.”
🤔 “I’ll start when things calm down.”
🤔 “I don’t want to rush it.”

All of these sound mature and responsible.

But under the surface, fear is whispering, What if I can’t do it?

Inconvenient truth: Readiness is an illusion.

It is not something you earn/achieve before you begin; it is something you create through action.

Every hour spent waiting for confidence strengthens the illusion that certainty will one day arrive. It never does.

Fear wants you to prepare forever. Great Work wants you to begin.

2. Fear Masquerades as Perfectionism

When the work is finally underway, fear changes tactics.

Suddenly, the font matters. The plan must be airtight. The timing has to be perfect.

It feels like excellence, but it is actually self-protection.

Defensive failure (failure created by NOT doing something—procrastination, over-preparing, and endless editing all qualify) keeps you safe from the discomfort of learning in public.

The only thing that dissolves fear is evidence, and evidence comes from doing (and sharing!) the work.

Imperfect action gives you feedback. Endless polishing gives you nothing but delay.

3. Fear Rushes You Toward Reassurance

Think of that classic scary-movie moment when a terrified character makes every wrong move.

They hear a strange noise, grab a flickering flashlight, and rush headlong into the basement. They panic, slam doors, and draw the danger closer.

That is a fear loop, and it can show up when your Great Work starts to matter too much."

You want proof that you “have what it takes,” so you hurry to finish, submit before it’s ready, and rush to get the reassurance you need to feel comfortable.

But rushing is fear in disguise. It drives you straight toward the very outcome you are trying to avoid. (👈 This is an inconvenient truth I’ve learned again and again)

The real move is to slow down and let the work unfold.

(Do you notice how 2 and 3 seem to contradict each other? That’s what Great Work looks like. But don’t worry, I can help you figure out how to navigate it.

4. Fear Keeps You Isolated

Fear loves to convince you that you are the only one who feels unqualified.

Everyone else seems confident, so you double down on doing it alone.

But Great Work was never meant to be a solo act.

It grows faster and feels lighter with community, accountability, and help.

Community, Accountability, and Coaching help you see what fear hides from view: that you are already capable, already enough, already in motion.

5. Fear Hides Behind Logic, But the Only Way Out Is Through

Fear sounds calm, logical, even kind.

It tells you to be cautious, to think it through, to wait for the right time.

But the right time never comes. Fear cannot be out-planned or out-waited.

It only loses power through movement.

Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the willingness to keep going alongside it.

That is the moment your Great Work stops being an idea and becomes real.

How I Broke the Fear Loop For Myself

When I first tried to write a book, I was twenty-five. (note: that was a LONG time ago).

For 20 years, though, every time I thought to sit down and write, something else became urgent: family obligations, launching a new product, changing jobs… anything but the page.

Some of those things were urgent, and some of them weren't.

Some of these U-turns were me avoiding the terrifying reckoning I worried could be waiting for me: What if I can’t have the dream I’ve always wanted??

Eventually, I realized I would never feel ready.

So I wrote Great Work anyway, right beside the voice whispering, “This could be a disaster.”

And maybe it was, at first.

But at the beginning, showing up mattered more than getting it right.

That is how Great Work begins, not when you silence fear but when you stop letting it run the show.

Reclaiming Your Great Work

Fear is not your enemy; it is a compass pointing to what matters most.

If your Great Work scares you, that is the signal you are on the right track.

Wondering whether you have what it takes to do Great Work?

Well, are you willing to:
👉 Start before you feel ready.
👉 Ask for help.
👉 Keep going when it gets complicated?

Yes? Congratulations!

That’s what it takes to do Great Work.