What’s your path to realizing your dreams? Accomplishing your goals? Living a fulfilled life?

That path will be different for each of us. Yet there is a place where our paths will likely intersect.

It’s a place where we frequently end up stuck – sidetracked - deciding to settle or give up rather than press on.

The name of that place is Fear.

Here’s a great acronym that defines fear perfectly:

False Expectations Appearing Real.

Expectations. We all have them. It’s the strong belief that something will happen in the future. And often our expectations are colored by past experiences.

Learning and growth can certainly come from past experiences. Planning for the future absolutely helps set our direction. But when we ruminate on the past or anticipate the future, we welcome fear into the driver’s seat.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, it’s imperative to push fear out of the driver’s seat and get your hands back on the steering wheel.

So what if, instead of being fearful, you approach each activity in your day as an experiment?

What if experimentation becomes your default way of being? How would that be different?You’ll find that the lens through which you view your activities is no longer focused on success or failure. You adopt an attitude of: “Let’s see!”

• Let’s see what happens when I just show up.

• Let’s see what happens when I suspend my beliefs about a particular outcome.

• Let’s see what happens when I operate in the present moment.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advising that you invest your time in activities that don't support your goals. In fact, your choice of activities should be very strategic.

What changes when you adopt a mindset that embraces experimentation is how you show up for those activities.

You’ll find you show up with the kind of faith Napoleon Hill talks about in his classic book, Think and Grow Rich.  Hill says, “Faith is the only known antidote for failure.”

It’s important to understand that faith, as Hill describes it, is a belief in the what, not the how. A belief that you can achieve what you want to accomplish with faith that the how will present itself in opportunities along the way.

That’s where experimenting comes in.

To fully participate in experimentation, you must suspend your expectations of a particular outcome and be open to showing up when the opportunity presents itself.

Earlier this year, I signed up for a book-based mastermind group. In fact, we're studying Think and Grow Rich. The group is meeting at a private business club. This was my first experience with this kind of group, and I was curious about how this might help me grow my business.

After our first meeting, I decided to join some business acquaintances in the club’s bar. During the conversation, I was asked to be a guest on Strategic Insights Radio, hosted by Sterling Rose Consulting Corp. They asked me to be on the show the very next morning.

The decision to join the mastermind group led me to be in that place at that time. The decision to engage with business acquaintances led me to accept the invitation to discuss my business on a radio show with hundreds of thousands of listeners.

You can listen to the interview here: http://gwinnettbusinessradiox.com/sterling-rose-consulting-35/

What will the outcome of the experience be? The short answer is, “I don’t know.” The truth is, because I know what goals I want to accomplish, I have faith that showing up and embracing opportunities will result in the realization of my dreams.

If you’d like some help embracing experimentation and letting go of fear in your own life, contact me at gayle@total-life-leadership.com.