Lead the People #123: How to Overcome Fear and Live More Courageously with Dr. Mary Poffenroth
Dr. Mary Poffenroth is a scientist, professor, and fear/courage researcher. From being adopted at birth to being a first generation college student to her first day at NASA and beyond, Mary has dedicated her life to understanding how best to do scary things. Her work has been featured in Forbes, TIME, Science, TED, Entrepreneur, Cosmopolitan, the Wall Street Journal, SUCCESS Magazine, and Fast Company. Mary has three master’s degrees (biology, psychology, science communication) & a PhD in psychology. Mary shares some of her best stories and strongest courage building, fear fighting neurohacks in her book Brave New You: Strategies, Tools, and Neurohacks to Live More Courageously Every Day.
Top 3 Takeaways
- Open Up. Fear shuts down our prefrontal cortex, disrupting creativity and problem-solving abilities, which is why managing fear is essential for innovation and leadership.
- Fact vs. Fiction. There's a critical difference between factual fears (immediate dangers) and fictional fears (stories we tell ourselves), with the latter being more insidious to our wellbeing.
- At Ease. The RAIN method (Recognize, Assign, Identify, Navigate) offers a practical framework to identify fear responses and implement neurohacks that can calm your brain's fear response.
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From the Source
"If we don't take care of our fear stuff, we can't innovate. We can't be creative. We can't solve complex problems."
"Fictional fear can have a grain of truth, just like a really good fiction book could be based on true events... But it's not true in the moment, and it's not true in totality."
"It's biologically impossible not to feel fear... All those goals and dreams are going to be on the other side of being afraid, because it means you're doing something new."
"We parent like we were parented, we lead like we were led, we teach like we were taught. Unless we put in the energy and the time and the effort to do something differently."
"With AI and technology, things aren't going to get slower. Things are going to get faster and faster and faster. It's easy to really freeze up and feel overwhelmed if you don't have these tools in place."
Connect with Mary
Website: http://hellobravenewyou.com