.jpg)
The Mike Muldoon Podcast: Bite-Sized Coaching Sessions Empowering Transformation in Small Doses
Unlike those who’ve already reached their goals and now tell you how to get there, The Mike Muldoon Podcast isn’t about preaching from the finish line. We’re (yes, me too) on this journey together. I’m walking it with you—growing, learning, and striving side by side. This is about elevating our lives, building a stronger, more empowered mindset, and unlocking our full potential with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
The Mike Muldoon Podcast: Bite-Sized Coaching Sessions Empowering Transformation in Small Doses
Fear Stops Life, Not Death
Fear masquerades as our protector, but it's secretly our prison guard. In this powerful episode, I return after a brief hiatus to explore the fundamental truth that most of us misunderstand about fear – it doesn't actually stop death, it stops life.
Having recently experienced my own business ebbs and flows at the bagel shop, I've faced those familiar waves of fear that wash over entrepreneurs during slow periods. This personal experience serves as the perfect backdrop to examine how fear operates in our daily lives. While certain fears legitimately protect us from physical harm, the vast majority simply paralyze rather than protect.
The most dangerous deception is how subtly fear disguises itself. It doesn't always appear as panic or terror; more often it's the quiet voice saying, "I'm not ready yet," "Maybe next year," or "What will others think?" Drawing on Anaïs Nin's profound insight about the pain of remaining a bud versus blossoming, we explore those crossroads moments – the job applications never submitted, books never written, businesses never launched. I've personally met countless people who dreamed of opening a bagel shop in our town but let fear hold them back, while I chose to push ahead despite the same uncertainties.
The real tragedy isn't failure – it's reaching the end of your life having never truly lived. You don't need to become fearless to change your life; you simply need to decide that fear no longer gets the driver's seat. What dream have you been postponing? What leap are you ready to take? Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this message, and together let's choose living over merely existing.
Instagram: @mikemuldoonlc
Website: www.themikemuldoonpodcast.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/mike-muldoon-podcast
Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Mike Muldoon Podcast. Yes, I know I've been away a few weeks, so it's crazy. I think I'm gonna be able to get more consistent out my podcast because I'm down here in my office. I finally got my office set up. Um, at my shop I have a office space and if you can hear a little humming, that's probably one of the generators or something going on. So I apologize for that, but it's been crazy.
Speaker 1:I've been very fortunate, we've been busy, but you know, it's still no matter what. It's. Still sometimes I could feel scary. We just suddenly had a busy season not a busy season, a slow season because schools went out. All of a sudden, you see a drop in sales, you see a drop on customers, you see a drop on everything.
Speaker 1:So of course, fear starts rising and again, as I often talk about in life, fear is the one thing that holds most people back. Fear is the thing right, and the thing about it, and this is what I'm going to talk about again. I'm probably always going to talk about it because it's the one does. But here's the thing, and we all, and we all assume that fear is there to stop us from hurting ourselves by having fear. It stops us from really, you know, from, uh, doing damage to ourself. But the truth of the matter is fear, fear doesn't stop. Let's just say the biggest thing Fear doesn't stop death, it stops life. So the thing is, most people think fear is there to protect us, and sure, sometimes it is. I mean don't jump off a cliff, don't run with scissors, don't microwave metal which, you'd be surprised, one of my employees did one time. There are certain fears that really do serve us, but most of the fear we carry, it's not protective, it's paralyzing, it doesn't keep us alive, it keeps us from living Because fear again doesn't keep us alive. It keeps us from living because fear again doesn't stop death, it stops life, and that's what we're going to talk about. Here's the truth. No one tells you. You can be alive, breathing, heart beating, and still feel dead inside. Why? Because you've silenced every instinct, ignored every calling and let comfort smother your potential. I've talked about this, right. Nothing good comes from uncomfortable, because when we're comfortable we're complacent, right, and the thing is, it's not always dramatic, right? Fear is really this big, dramatic thing like, oh my God, it's a fear. It just, it shows up in small, quiet ways it's like oh you know, I'm really not ready, I'll do it later, maybe I'll do it next year. What if I fail? What will others think? Now if you read my book Five Basic Keys to Living Successfully in Between, I talk a lot about that one, you know. But that voice, that's not caution, that's just fear in disguise and it's stealing your time. And not just that, but it's stealing your dreams.
Speaker 1:There was an author. I forgot what her name was. I want to say it's like Anais Nin. She basically wrote this quote one time. I'm a big quote guy. If you listen to my podcast you know what it says.
Speaker 1:And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. And that is so true. I mean, that's the crossroads we all hit eventually, especially if we want to try something new. You know, life eventually presents things for us and then we have to make a decision. But a lot of times for people the crossroads is you know, it's the job they don't apply for right, it's the book you don't write because you've been thinking about writing a book. The love you don't pursue. The book you don't write because you've been thinking about writing a book. The love you don't pursue, the business you don't start.
Speaker 1:I mean, I could tell you how many people have come up to me since I've opened up this bagel shop in a town that was craving a bagel shop said. You know, I always thought about opening up a bagel shop here. I always thought it. All my friends thought about it. Everybody thinks about it, but guess what stopped it? Probably the fear. The fear of what if it doesn't work? Now I get it. I get that fear, but I'm still willing to push ahead and take a shot at it. Right. So the business you don't start, the life you never build because fear kept whispering to you, stay here.
Speaker 1:It's safe, remember the body, the mind, right, just like the body, path of least resistance. But safe is a short-term reward with a long-term cost. You can live your whole life like that, carefully, cautiously, and reach the end never having really lived. And, like I've said a million times, life is about living. Most people just exist, and that's the real danger. We all die. That's the one promise life makes us, but not everyone lives because they let fear stop them from even starting anything.
Speaker 1:So here it is Do that thing, take that leap, make that call, go all in, not because you're fearless, but because you're done letting fear sit in that driver's seat of your life. You don't need to be fearless to change your life. You just need to decide that fear doesn't get to run your life anymore, because fear doesn't stop death, it stops life, and life's too short to let it All right, life's too short to let it. So, whatever you're thinking about, whatever goal you had because I talk to people all the time oh, I wish, I wish, and again we can justify it in our minds as the time's not right, this isn't right, I don't have this, what I have that. But again, you're not rationalizing, you're not making a good decision, you're basically just dealing with fear in disguise, and that's what I got for you today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sticking around with me and listening to me and I'm sorry I've missed so many podcasts. Since I've started this business, a lot of my life has had to get readjusted to do this, but now I think, with the office down here and hope this humming isn't too loud, but my office set up downstairs and having a good space here to work out of, I think I should be more consistent with my podcast going forward. So again, thank you so much for listening, thank you so much for sharing. I see the numbers growing, which is really nice. Find somebody right now who you think who can use this podcast. Send it to them and let's see if we can make some change in not only your life, but in their lives as well. Okay, so listen, have a great week, have a great day. We're going into the weekend shortly and, as always, I got nothing but love for you.
