🌱 I quit my job by changing my relationship with fear

The last 2 months, I’ve been more outside my comfort zone than the prior 2 years!

Lot more updates coming soon.

But as always, I’m compressing my biggest learnings for you to use in your own life.

Here’s your 3 insights in 3 minutes.

😰 Reframing Fear

Twice a year, I guest lecture at UT’s business school.

This week, I added new material.

I added this clip from Alex Honnold that perfectly captured how I think about fear.

YouTubeView on YouTube

He explains it simply:

If you don’t experience real fear from time to time, your brain just makes things up.

That’s why people melt down at airports. Or stress about long security lines and delayed flights.

You’re in a climate-controlled building with food everywhere… yet your nervous system is convinced something is wrong.

Pretty weird right?

So Alex’s point is that unless you really use your fear, your brain will just make stuff up to be fearful of. Fear doesn’t ever disappear, it just gets reassigned.

That hit me because it explains a lot.

If the brain is going to generate stress anyway, you might as well spend it on things that actually move your life forward.

Uncomfortable conversations, big decisions, stretching into something you care about.

Which brings me to why I recently quit my job…

😧 Fear of Quitting & Starting

For the last few Decembers, my annual personal review ended the same way.

“This will probably be my last year as a full-time employee.”

And then I didn’t act on it.

Nothing was wrong. I liked my job and the people were awesome.

But something was off.

Quick context.

In 2019, I started a marketing agency.

Through a series of unexpected opportunities, I ended up working with Noah Kagan then later joining AppSumo.

Over the years, I learned a TON:

• Copywriting, newsletters, YouTube channels

• Influencer marketing, membership psychology, email marketing

• The best ai and SaaS tools for business growth

• Running a founder interview series (5M+ views across YouTube and socials)

I didn’t apply for any of these roles. They just happened.

At the same time, I kept telling myself I wanted to build my own thing. So I consulted on the side.

What bothered me the most wasn’t yet the fear, but the division.

I wasn’t FULLY in one place or the other.

And over time, that split attention leaked my energy.

I felt like I was divided and therefore wasn’t living up to my potential.

There’s a passage from The Four Agreements that helped me name it:

"We know we are not what we believe we are supposed to be and so we feel

false, frustrated, and dishonest. We try to hide ourselves, and we pretend to be

what we are not. The result is that we feel unauthentic and wear social masks to

keep others from noticing this. We are so afraid that somebody else will notice

that we are not what we pretend to be. We judge others according to our image

of perfection as well, and naturally they fall short of our expectations."

— Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

When we don’t feel like we’re hitting our potential, we start pretending.

Not pretending dramatically.

Just saying one thing when we zoom out…and living another way day to day.

Once I saw that clearly, the decision got easier.

The moment I made it, my body knew before my brain could explain it.

Relief.

The same feeling I had when I left my corporate job in 2018.

And when I decided to travel South America in 2022.

Fear didn’t go away.

It just stopped being wasted.

🤔 Feeling “Ready” Is A Fallacy

One of my all-time favorite reminders:

“There will never be a perfect time to do something that stretches you.

That’s true whether you are starting a business, having a child, changing careers, or wrestling with any number of challenges. That’s not a license to be reckless and never think things through, but at some point you have to embrace the uncertainty because it is the only path forward.

If you were ready for it, it wouldn't be growth.”

— James Clear

So here’s the real choice:

1. Your brain is going to pick something to fear anyway

2. You will never feel fully “ready”

3. You get to decide whether that fear is wasted or invested

That’s the opportunity we all have. How will you use it?

Salud,
Mitchell