Michelle Polera Venezuelan living in New York, did not expect to find herself up against her fears in her master’s degree in branding which he did at the School of Visual Arts in New York. The young woman was looking for specialization in the world of branding and she found herself creating her own brand, Hello, Fears, in just a few months. It all started with the ask Debbie Millman, the teacher of the master’s degree who in 2014 asked Michelle and the rest of the classmates where did they want to be 10 years from now and what did they think would stop them? After giving the matter some thought, Poler decided to write his goal, finding out that fear was the only thing that stood in the way between her and his dream.
Dice work canetesuccess coach, who “Fear is a limiting and useless energy”. After accepting the challenge From her mentor with a 100-day project, Michelle Poler discovered that this limitation is more of an imposition that we take for various reasons, but that it can be overcome. Debbie urged him to repeat one thing for 100 days and Michelle decided face your fears during that time. And to record his achievements, Poler created a YouTube channel where he broadcast a video showing one feat after another. The project became a viral program through social networks and its protagonist in a model of overcoming that goes around the world.
Hello, fears: a first-person book to get out of your comfort zone
In addition to her Instagram account and her YouTube channel (@hellofears), the entrepreneur and speaker has told how she took each of the steps she took reconsider the influence of fear on his life in a homonymous book hello fears (Ed. Diana) where she explains how she left her comfort zone to jump with a parachute, dance alone in the middle of Times Square at rush hour or eat fresh oysters (which still seem disgusting to her). She has inspired millions of people to do the same, but most of all, she has opened a door to psychological empowerment that allows you to trust your possibilities despite all the limitations you have always experienced: the fear of rejection, the shamepain or lack of control, among others.
As the team of experts at Buencoco, an online psychotherapy and psychology service, reminds us, the educational researcher Zimmerman pointed out that the psychological empowerment It is made up of components “of an intrapersonal nature, referring to the self-perception of individuals regarding their own capabilities; interactive, focused on the links between the individual and his immediate and behavioral environment” related to the specific actions that individuals carry out to obtain control about their lives. However, this concept has barely started the fight against inherited beliefs.
“I come from a family of survivors of World War II. […]. My grandparents were lucky, because they survived and were able to start a new life from scratch in another country, Venezuela, which is where I come from. The problem is that the fears stayed with them and, in fact, they inherited from generation to generation. My mother grew up with a lot of fears, so I did too”, says Michelle Poler in her book. And it is that indeed, the fears of the parents are transmitted to the children and as we grow it is more difficult to get rid of them unless you have the conviction full that you can do it.
Psychological empowerment: Take control of your life
In 1981, the anthropologist Julian Rappaport, introducing the term of psychological empowerment, defined it as “the process through which individuals gain control over their own lives.” And that is precisely what facing fear is all about. For this it is essential meet to the millimeter, not deceive yourself to please the ears (much less your own). Establish the goal that we want to achieve and move forward step by step, celebrating each achievement, each obstacle overcome. For that, you have to get out of your comfort zone and forget about clichés such as the bad known is better than the good to be known. The comfort it can be very good in restorative terms, but be careful not to accommodate yourself without criteria because you end up doing prey to your fearsclosing doors and finding unhappiness in the frustration and anger of not having achieved your goals.
In some of her talks, which is now what motivates Michelle Poler to travel around the world, the Venezuelan appeared on the scene before thousands of people dancing reggaeton. She went on stage forgetting her shame before the astonished gaze of the attendees who, without opening their mouths, were already hooked on that woman who was going to talk to them about overcoming their fears, how to go from autopilot (as he titles one of the chapters of his book) to a full life and happy, which is what we all seek.
One of the most limiting fears is Fear of failure in the attempt to achieve happiness. That goal has become an obsession for many that does not allow them to see the achievement in small steps. You don’t have to face death first to remove the greatest fear that limits you from your path. The purpose of sticking your head out the window of the uncertainty It is the first step on a walk that can be long and tedious on the road to happiness. But, and how comforting is overcoming? The confidence you gain and the improved self esteem? And the new worth that you give yourself? Do not these conquests, by themselves, give happiness? “The enemy of success is not failure. It’s comfort“, dice Michelle Poler.
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