I’ve been reading the book Fear Intelligence by Jacqueline Wales and wanted to take a moment to share it with you all.
I don’t know how its possible but it’s as if the author Jacqueline Wales wrote this specifically for me. I’m autistic, anxious, and ADHD and have struggled for a long time with fear of rejection, inadequacy, and uncertainty.
As a startup founder, I have been grinding hard to make my dreams come true and build the business and life that I want. But it has come at a cost of relationships and a great deal of fear and uncertainty. This book has helped me identify my fears and lean into them instead of avoiding them.
Anxiety can be crippling and I had learned from group therapy that exposure therapy helps to desensitize you to the fear. But this book sees it in a different way that makes way more sense and feels far more empowering and inspiring. That your fear is an opportunity and learning to lean into it will not just allow you to tolerate the anxiety provoking conditions, but to transform it into your greatest strength.
The book is very structured which works great for my brain. I like organization.
Each section comes with a bulleted summary and journal prompts.
I love journal prompts.
Journaling has been a great practice for me to help me process my emotions, focus on my goals, and grow.
Similar books are too bloated but I found this book to be much more direct and to the point. I don’t like wasting time.
I have made tons of highlights and keep going back over this book again to study and revisit because overcoming fear is a daily practice that will take time to fully internalize.
Some minor constructive feedback
- There are times where it felt like the same stuff was repeated in a different way and it caused me to question if I had read that section already or if there was a mistake in the book. But I also understand repetition helps with learning.
- There were also a few formatting issues in the ebook but it didn’t distract much from the reading. I think they are easy fixes.
- A journaling guide that goes with this would be so awesome. (Like a PDF or web page) Something that has all the journal prompts grouped by section/chapter and reference chapter title and page numbers so I can go back and re-read the chapter.
If you find that anxiety and fear are holding you back from achieving your goals, I suggest you give Fear Intelligence a read.