Mastering fear : a Navy SEAL's guide
(Book)

Includes index.

"'Fear is a lot like fire. When it's out of control, fire is destructive. Learn how to use it, and you can change the course of your destiny.' When Brandon Webb left home at sixteen and then joined the Navy SEALs, he learned an invaluable lesson about fear. Not how to eliminate it--how to master it. After leaving the military, he took that lesson into civilian life and business, with exceptional results. Webb also showed that anyone can master fear by sharing his insights with his friend Kamal, who suffered from a deep, lifelong aversion to swimming. For years, swimming teachers had tried to convince Kamal that 'it's not scary at all!' Webb, on the other hand, embraced Kamal's fear and used it as a motivator. With just a few days of Webb's coaching, Kamal went from holding desperately on to the pool's edge, to treading water, to swimming laps and doing cannonballs. Drawing on his wide range of experiences along with colorful anecdotes from his vast network of high-achieving friends, Webb shows how you, too, can stretch your boundaries and use your fears as fuel to achieve more than you ever thought possible. His counterintuitive advice includes: *Stay in your comfort zone, at least at first. If you first master your fears on a small scale and within safe parameters, you'll develop the tools to go big. *Understand that safety is an illusion. Accepting that complete safety is a fantasy frees you to embrace those risks that are worth it, and to do so with passion and abandon. *Keep your ego in check. When your ego is in charge, it can steer your decision making in the wrong direction. Turn down the volume on your subjective feelings, and you'll start hearing the far more reliable voice of your gut. Webb breaks down the process of harnessing fear into five practical steps that will lead you to greater courage and self-mastery."--Dust jacket.