Is It Really Scary? Or Does It Just Look Scary?

I love reading Seth Godin's blog.Since I'm a big fan of being scared about things, I enjoyed today's post more than usual. He says this (and even puts it in italics): "It’s essential that we differentiate between things that remind us of fear and those that are actually risky. In our adult world, the most valuable activities are actually inconvenient, fraught with the fear of failure and apparently un-do-able."I went to a meeting on Saturday morning. Unlike what I usually do on Saturday mornings, I got up a bit early and took more care of my make-up, hair and clothing. I felt good.But when I walked into the meeting, the good feelings changed to shame and fear.As I read Seth's blog today, I realized this was a TEXTBOOK example of something that reminded me of fear (walking into a room with a lot of other people, not knowing all of them, etc.), but was not actually risky.Many of the fears clients face in their businesses: fears about making money, about setting prices, being visible in their marketing, using all their strengths and experience in their businesses instead of hiding some of them in case they're too eccentric (that would be me), are not actually risky. I've gone crazy on the italics in this post, but I think they're warranted. Putting our best work out there isn't truly risky. It's not life and death. It can be threatening to our egos, but NOT putting our best work into the world threatens our psyches. That's worse.I'm taking time today to pay attention when I'm afraid, and to notice if a situation reminds me of fear or if it's actually risky. I'm betting that even though I'm exploring some new areas of my business today, not one single thing I do will be risky.Can you tell the difference between something that reminds you of fear and something truly risky? Comment below.