As much as I love what I do every day, my transition from being a lawyer to the personal development industry wasn’t an easy one.

One minute I’d be very excited about doing this kind of work and the next I’d feel like I’d stuck my hand in an electric socket. My central nervous system was going berserk!

You’ve probably experienced something similar when pursuing your own goals and dreams.

Most people are reluctant to step out and act on a big idea for fear of what they will lose. Yet, if we’d stop and think about it, we’d realize the worst that can happen is usually not all that bad yet the best that can happen is generally incredible.

In this post, I’ll explain what’s going on inside you each time you’re about to step outside of your comfort zone. This understanding should help you defy the odds and step forward into freedom the next time you’re up against the terror barrier.

I hope you’ll read this more than once because…

Few people ever truly get this

There are two parts to our mind – the conscious or thinking mind and the subconscious mind, which is the emotional part of the mind.

The conscious mind can accept, reject, and originate ideas. The subconscious mind must accept everything you give it and it can’t differentiate between what’s real or imagined. It also determines the vibration that your body is in, which affects how you feel. The paradigm (a collection of habits that determine the results you get in your life) is also in the subconscious mind.

Let’s say for the past 20 years I’ve had X type thinking (e.g., I’m a lawyer). My X thoughts are in harmony with the beliefs that reside in my subconscious mind about growing my law practice, for example.

Now let’s say that I have a new type of thought, a Y idea, such as wanting to work with Bob Proctor. Now as long as that Y thought stays in my conscious mind, it’s no big deal. It’s not reaching my subconscious mind and affecting how I feel.

But when I start acting on my new idea and taking steps to actually start working with Bob, I become emotionally involved with the idea. Now I have X and Y ideas in my subconscious mind, and they’re like oil and water. They don’t mix.

So, my central nervous system, which is the most powerful computer system you could ever imagine, starts going crazy. I get anxious, and I start thinking “Oh my gosh! What have I just done? How am I going to do this?”

It’s a very uncomfortable feeling because my paradigm wants me to stay where things are comfortable and familiar (being a lawyer). It doesn’t want me to charter unknown territory.

That’s what happens to everyone when we impress a new idea on the subconscious mind. We immediately start trying to figure out how we’re going to do it, but we’re focusing only on what we currently know. Most of us are learned, but we’re reluctant to keep learning or keep moving. So, we limit ourselves to what we already know.

The next time you want to act on a big idea, instead of trying to figure out the “how ” complete the following three practices:

1. Recognize that you have simply introduced a new idea that doesn’t yet mix with the old idea of yourself.
2. Rather than letting the old idea—the old paradigm—win or keep you stuck, keep impressing the new idea on the subconscious mind with gratitude and faith.
3. Keep pushing into the unknown territory that you have fallen in love with.

Fear and growth go hand in hand

Another way to get a grasp on this is to recognize the four psychological stages you go through when dealing with the terror barrier:

1. Bondage: In this stage, you are getting X type results, results you don’t want (see illustration below). The results are caused by the X-type conditioning in the subconscious mind.

This stage is called “bondage” because even though you have the ability to originate ideas, you continue to create X type thoughts from the power that flows into your conscious mind.

2. Reason: On a conscious level, you create a new idea of living the life you want, illustrated by the Y. However, you continue to get X type results—results you do not want—because you don’t internalize the idea by acting on it. You just deal with the Y idea on a conscious level.

In other words, you can think about what you want; you can even mentally see yourself with it, but nothing in your life changes because you haven’t internalized the idea (it hasn’t reached your subconscious mind).

3. Conflict: Before we cover this state, it is important to understand that the ideas you are emotionally involved with control the vibration you are in. Vibration on a conscious level is referred to as feeling. Although the results you are getting are what you do not want, you feel comfortable in the vibration you are in because you have been living with it every day, perhaps most of your life.

In this stage, you act on and become emotionally involved with the Y idea. The moment the Y type idea is impressed on the X-type conditioning, the electrical system in your body goes haywire, and you are in an XY vibration. Worry, fear, and anxiety strike on a physical level.

All three hit so fast and with such impact the result is your mind is in a terrible state because the new Y idea is driving you ahead and X idea is driving you back. The conflict is unbearable. You’re too scared to go ahead, you don’t want to go back, and you can’t stay where you are.

Going ahead is the only way your life will improve. However, a lack of understanding of exactly what is taking place inside causes you to retreat to familiar territory. You may quickly bounce off the terror barrier all the way back to bondage and then rationalize to yourself why that is a good place to be. It’s comfortable… you are familiar with it… it’s good enough.

4. Freedom: Understanding permits you to step forward into growth and freedom. The doubt, fear, and anxiety have not left; however, through knowledge or study, you know if you persist it will leave. By continually getting involved with the Y idea and acting on it—despite the fear—over a relatively short period the conditioning changes and you are living in a new reality.

You have two choices…

The doubt, fear, and worry that you experience when stepping out of your comfort zone may cause you to do what most people do: retreat to what you perceive as safety. Unfortunately, that’s the most dangerous place you could live because there is no growth. And where there is no growth, there is disintegration.

I say that because nothing ever stays the same. You’re either moving forward towards something bigger and better or you’re going in the opposite direction.

Understanding the terror barrier won’t make it go away. Bob still runs up against it whenever he sets a new goal, and he’s been studying this for more than half a century. Of course, he understands what’s happening, and he crashes right through it.

In fact, anyone who has ever accomplished anything of any consequence has come up against the terror barrier and they move into and through it.

Review the diagram above. Understand what is going on in each stage. Then, commit to crashing through the terror barrier the next time it comes up for you. I guarantee the rewards of working through the fear, changing the paradigm, and pushing on will be truly amazing.

To more and better,

Sandy Gallagher