Where could your career take you if you were fearless - Viewpoint Viewpoint careers advice blog

Where could your career take you if you were fearless - Viewpoint Fear can be crippling. It can be the one thing holding you back from applying for that dream job. But what if your fear of the boardroom was actually a genetic hangover from your great-grandparents, inherited along with your eye colour? Can we now ignore such primal fears? Recent research in mice suggests that the emotional consequences of a traumatic experience can leave a genetic imprint that is passed down through the generations. The grandchildren of mice conditioned to fear the scent of orange blossom will startle in response to that smell, despite never experienced it before. Our own response to fear is thought to be more primal, and animal-like, than previously thought. When we are faced with a perceived threat or danger, humans respond both consciously and subconsciously. Your conscious response uses reasoning to assess the risk, but your subconscious response is similar to that seen in animals and is centred on one basic need â€" to stay alive. Phobias and irrational fears emerge when your primal subconscious response dominates over your more rational, conscious response. Dawn Walton, a cognitive hypnotherapist who specialises in fears and phobias explains: “Up to 90% of the time we are being ruled by the subconscious part of our brain. This is the part that is responsible for keeping us alive and safe from harm. The problem is, its a bit primitive and a bit emotional because it works on caveman rules.” This is the fight or flight response that many of us will have studied during our undergraduate days. Dawn continues: “To protect us, it triggers an instant physical response. Our body is flooded with adrenaline. Our heart rate increases. Our breath quickens. Sound familiar? Now we are ready to fight, run away or simply freeze. Of course the weird thing is that there are no real predators we need to fear anymore and yet still we find ourselves experiencing the same physical response when we get anxious or scared.” Despite a distinct lack of predators in our lives, our subconscious is still active. This is because it’s still trying to protect us, but now its protecting us from a different threat; the threat of emotional rather than physical hurt. Seth Godin, author of 17 books and former Vice President of Direct Marketing at Yahoo! refers to this as our ‘lizard brain’. The voice in the back of your head telling you to “back off, be careful, go slow, compromise” â€" that’s your amygdala. It’s “the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear and rage and reproductive drive”, Seth tells us. He explores the Lizard brain in his best-selling book, Linchpin, but advises: “Your lizard brain is here to stay and your job is to figure out how to quiet it and ignore it.” Thankfully, there are a couple of simple tricks you can use to stop your subconscious being all overprotective. Dawn suggests trying the following the next time you have a stressful meeting or job interview: Consciously control your breathing. Breathe in while counting to 5 and out while counting to 9 at a pace that works for you. When your breathing is steady, your mind has no reason to think you are afraid and stands down. Find your calm place. When you’re preparing for an interview, spend a few minutes thinking of a time when you were calm and in control. You want to notice everything about that moment to the degree where you can say the strength of feeling is 8 out of 10 or more. Once you are fully in the memory, think of a colour â€" just the first colour that comes to mind. Dont overthink it, just accept the colour that pops into your mind first, because that comes from your subconscious. Then simply wear or carry something of that colour with you when you go to the interview. Look at your calm colour before and during your interview and the calm feeling you recalled will wash over you. So now you know the origin of those sweaty palms and butterflies in your stomach, will you use the techniques here to conquer your subconscious? Where could your career take you if you were fearless? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Join the Life Sciences Industry Insights with Hays LinkedIn group to share your thoughts and stay up-to-date with the latest on business, employment and recruitment news in the life sciences industry. Join the conversation