High-Functioning Fear: From Procrastination to Peak Performance, with Grace Marshall

It's clear that the nature of change has changed. It’s no longer something we plan for; it's a constant state. For leaders and entrepreneurs, this can be a huge source of stress and fear.

If you've ever found yourself prioritising urgent but unimportant tasks over strategic projects, you'll know what I mean.

In this episode, I'm joined by Grace Marshall, a productivity expert who specialises in navigating fear and change. We explore why we often avoid the important work and how to manage the underlying fears that drive our behaviours.

Here are a few of the key areas we discussed:

✳️ High-Functioning Fear: We explored how fear often masquerades as productivity or strategic high performance. Grace breaks down the four common fear responses-fight, flight, freeze, and fawn-and explains how they manifest in the workplace.

✳️ Leadership in the Modern Workplace: We discussed the shift from traditional command-and-control leadership to a more collaborative and trust-based model, especially in remote and hybrid environments.

✳️ The Power of Naming Your Fears: A key theme was the importance of surfacing and acknowledging fear. When we name our fears, they lose their power over us and can become a point of connection rather than isolation.

Here are three actions you can take, inspired by my conversation with Grace:

👉 Practise the Pause: Before your next meal, take 10 deep, slow breaths. This is a powerful way to build moments of intentional pause into a busy day.

👉 Notice Your Fear Signals: Pay attention to how fear shows up for you. Do you speak faster, avoid certain tasks, or find yourself saying "yes" too often? Recognising your personal patterns is the first step to managing them.

👉 Explore Grace's Work: If you want to dive deeper, check out Grace's book, "Struggle," and listen to her podcast, "What the Fear."

Find out more about Grace and her work here : https://gracemarshall.com/

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