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Optimal Work Daily - Career, Productivity and Entrepreneurship

Optimal Work Daily - Career, Productivity and Entrepreneurship

2187: When Fear is Stopping You From Pursuing Meaningful Work by Leo Babauta on Personal Development

Optimal Work Daily - Career, Productivity and Entrepreneurship · Sep 26, 2026 · 8:01

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Episode 2187:

Leo Babauta explains that fear of failure, judgment, and choosing the wrong path is what most often keeps people from the purposeful work they say they want. He offers four practices: gradual exposure that starts far smaller than the imagined worst case, allowing yourself to actually feel the fear in the body, dropping the ego story behind it, and opening to the task in front of you. His argument is that the fear does not have to be removed before the work can begin.

Read along with the original article(s) here: https://zenhabits.net/fearful/

Quotes to ponder:

"Instead, start with youth football, high school football, and then college football before even considering the big leagues."

"It's not a problem, it's just a feeling, just an experience, just a part of the meaningful work you want to do."

"Being in the present, we can do the work."

Optimal Work Daily is a daily career advice podcast where we narrate the best articles on productivity, entrepreneurship, and work-life balance, read to you by a professional narrator so you can grow your career a little more every day.
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Episodes: Optimal Work Daily - Career, Productivity and Entrepreneurship

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