Answer your own questions. You may realize that the worst is already happening.

Our brains are fascinating machines. Below is a sample of questions I hear often in my coaching sessions.

• What if I don’t succeed?
• What if I fail?
• What if they say no?
• What if they judge me?
• What if I am not able to do it?
• What if they don’t answer me?
• What if he is not the one for me?
• What if I am not assigned to this project?

We are so afraid of the answers that we don’t even dare to answer the questions. However, living in “What if” land is not pleasant. It is like a dark cloud in our heads, preventing us from seeing clearly.

The first thing I do when my clients face a cloudy question like those ones is to get curious and invite: “Let’s answer this one.”.

Recently, I was in a session with a client looking to advance in his career. We have been working for 5 months.

As part of our work, he analyzed the company’s needs, identified where he could be more valuable, connected with peers, collected the required data, and created a solid business case to advocate for the perfect position for him.

He had it all, yet he was delaying presenting it to his leader.

In our session, the question came: “What if I don’t get their buy-in?”. For sure, I dream big with my clients in coaching sessions, and yet we deal with reality. Presenting a business case to change the bulk of his business and how he works may not be something he gets the buy-in to implement in one day. However, it is something that can be planned as a transition.

In answering the question, he understood that the worst thing that could happen if he didn’t get the buy-in is that he would continue to do his work as it is.

Then he realized: The worst was already happening.

He relaxed immediately and booked the meeting with his leader to present the business case the second he realized it.

In the next session, he was pure joy. The conversation was fantastic, and his proposal will even address one of the assignments his leader had, which was to review the way the team was working.

As a result, he was assigned to make a proposal on how to implement it so they could start a pilot.

As a bonus, he realized that five months ago, when we started working together, one of his concerns was that he had no control over the direction of his career path. He felt so proud of this progress and achievement. He wanted to have more ownership, and he created the perfect opportunity.

Ask and you shall receive!

Now it is your turn…

What question do you keep asking, and are so afraid of the answer that you don’t dare to respond?

I invite you to take a deep breath, get curious, and explore what comes after you answer.

From all the cases I witnessed, after allowing the emotions, the result is clarity and courage to move forward.

Enjoy your clarity!