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“Always do what you are afraid to do.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The day my last CPA exam results came out, I couldn’t muster the courage to log on to the computer and check if I had passed or failed. There I stood in front of the dark screen, unable to type a word or click on the mouse. I was terrified.

Fear immobilizes us, robs us of our innate ability to act, and leaves us helpless and powerless. It also affects our careers, plaguing us with micro-fears that ultimately chase success away.

Yet while it stops many in their tracks, fear has proven to be the catalyst behind many a success. Here are a few ways you can turn that tightening in your chest, ultra-rapid beating of your heart, even the paralyzing, numbing effect of fear to push your career higher:

1. Accept your fear! You have to acknowledge you are afraid first! Denying the growling feeling at the pit of your stomach will only serve to mislead you. Is that meeting scaring the living hell out of you? Are you afraid to ask for a promotion? Before you can move forward, accept what you are feeling and recognize it for what it is. You are scared, and it’s ok…

2. Understand your fear! Many don’t understand the mental blocks keeping them from success. Did your parents instill in you a mentality of “barely making it in life”? Are you ashamed of rising higher for fear your significant other, family, friends or community will reject you? Or are you doubting you, the perfect, well-behaved, responsible woman, will be judged for following your true career dreams? What’s scaring you? What makes you tick? If you don’t get your fear, it will end up getting you…

3. Let your fear fuel you! The saying goes:” If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough”. Let your fear of success fuel you with enough anger, determination and strength to reach higher. The fear itself is not the problem. What makes or breaks your career success is how you decide to redirect this fear, and whether you allow it to swallow you whole, or set you free.

4. Start acting out! Not in a reckless, irresponsible way, but in a way that pushes against the effects of fear. Do the thing that scares you. Petrified at the thought of asking for a promotion? Go do something bold, like skydiving (or wearing flat shoes at your next event), come back to work and tell your boss why you think you deserve more money. Take a different way to work, order a different meal off the menu, challenge yourself, and dare to ask for what you want!

5. Now go help someone else! The ultimate way to use fear to your advantage is to help someone else do the same. Mentor another woman at work, dare a lady friend to go after what they want, post an inspirational quote on social media, do something to inspire someone else to embrace their own fear and use it to push themselves higher!

How do you use your fear to push your career forward?

The Corporate Sis.