The Journey to Fearless Mastery

When people ask me how Fearless Mastery came to be, I often use the life analogy of conception, birth and growth. The idea was first seeded four years ago. I had taken some time off work to answer the call of heart that led me to four continents in as many months.

This particular day, I was visiting a friend in southern California, and we had set out on a boat trip to watch the whales off Dana Point.  We didn’t see any whales that day, but I came back with something I had never seen before. Actively on my own path to grow, I remember the moment on that boat, talking to my friend and feeling fully alive with the sun, sea and breeze present with us, I had a powerful flash of insight.

In one of those life-changing ‘aha’ moments, I realised that everything that had held me back in my life was essentially a form of fear. Even at times when I had believed that external circumstances or other people were responsible for my failures or disappointments, I could now clearly tie back to my own fears and actions (or inaction). The revelation was so strong and so clear. There was nothing else to it: the truth of the matter was that I had been held back by my own, often subconscious, fear. A Life without Fear – that was my quest! And I had a responsibility to bring this idea to life.

At the time I only that imagined I would write about it; I knew I had a story to tell, and I assumed that this would be my book. Little did I know that once the idea came to me, it wouldn’t take long for it to take on a life of its own! Less than two weeks after that moment on in California, I found myself leading a workshop on the topic at a conference in Colombia, some months later I was a regular speaker on stages at corporate events and international conferences, and a year down the line A Life without Fear had grown into a portfolio of ten popular talks!

Just as we can never fully know who a baby will grow into, we only know how our ideas will develop and what life they will choose after they are born, as we nurture them at each stage, watching with love and worry as they grow. Soon the talks were growing into workshops and the workshops into training courses that went far beyond the inspiration that I shared with others through my talks. A Life without Fear was growing up.

It was time for Fearless Mastery to come into its own. Still a part of the A Life Without Fear family of services, but now standing on its own two feet to support and train others on their own journey to live a life without fear.

Looking ahead a few years, A Life without Fear has grown into a complete leadership development programme with talks, a coaching programme, and a full curriculum of training courses.

When I share the short version of the story, as above, it sounds so easy, simple and straightforward. In reality, there were mounds of resistance and fear standing between me and each next step, each next talk, each next client, each next topic. I remember, during the early stages, my fearful resistance was so strong that it felt like there was a physical block of solid plastic in front of me that I would have to walk through before I could move forward!

Fearless Mastery is not just a name.

Mastery is a level of competence and proficiency that allows us to create with ease. Fearless Mastery is no different: it is the ability to continually create what we would love – in our lives, our relationships, in our impact in the world – continually choosing to go beyond our fears, circumstances or current limitations.

We achieve mastery through learning, application and practice. Fearless Mastery encompasses not only theoretical ideas or stories from others, but a deep comprehension of what it means for ourselves to live a life without fear, and an understanding of the structures in our lives that facilitate or hinder that. It involves familiarity with our fears and with our true power and utilises tools and processes to gain an ever-increasing command over our fears in favour of what we would love to create. Like any other skill, mastering the ability to live a life without fear can be learnt, and it takes practice and repetition to become proficient.

Our Fearless Mastery participants actively choose to go on this journey of self-discovery, growth and creation. They come into the programme open to new insights and knowledge, but also aware of the importance of the structures and support that enable a lifelong application of living fearlessly, and a commitment to keep growing and master the next step in their fearless journey.

As we reviewed our programmes for this year, we asked ourselves if ‘Fearless Mastery’ was still the right name for our learning and development programme. It is. Our journey, just like that of each person who comes on the fearless Mastery journey with us, is to continue to grow: Beyond the limits of what currently is, to create the next level of we would love.