Saloni once asked me to do something unusual. She asked me to write down my fears, all of them, on paper, and then burn them.
I sat with that idea for a while, because when I actually put pen to paper that night, the fears were bigger than I had expected.
There was self doubt. There was procrastination. And there was that quiet voice that kept asking, who are you to call yourself a coach, and what if you put yourself out there fully and it does not work.
I had been carrying these fears for a long time. Not loudly and not dramatically, just quietly in the background, showing up every single time I was about to take a step forward.
So I wrote them all down that night, every single one of them. And underneath, I wrote something else.
F.E.A.R. False Evidence Assumed Real.
Because that is all fear really is. They are stories we tell ourselves, dressed up to look like the truth.
And the opposite of fear, I realised, is faith. So I wrote that down too. God is with me.
The next morning, I took that paper out into my backyard, alone, and I burned it.
Something shifted in me as I watched it burn. Not because the fears disappeared, because they did not. It was because I had finally looked at them directly, named them, held them, and then chosen to let them go.
I want to be honest about what changed and what did not. My fears did not vanish overnight. I still feel them today. The difference is that I now know they are stories my mind is telling me, not reality. And that one shift made me so much freer in how I approach people.
Those first few days after the ritual were quietly liberating. I did so many things for the first time. I began talking openly to people about my coaching practice. I met friends and told them about my work, out loud, without shrinking. Small acts, but each one felt like a door opening.
I kept that momentum going. I drafted my coaching profile. I sent messages to five people about my work. I kept showing up on LinkedIn, and I kept the promises I had made to myself. And somewhere in all of that, my permanent role came through too.
I have come to believe that when you stop hiding, life stops hiding from you.
The burning ritual did not make me fearless. What it did was help me act in spite of the fear, and that has made all the difference.
If you are carrying fears of your own, here is something simple you can try. Sit down tonight and write them all out, every one, without editing yourself. Look at each one honestly and ask whether it is truth or simply false evidence you have assumed to be real. Then, if it helps, write down what you choose to put in its place. Faith. Trust. One small next step. You do not have to burn the page, though you can. What matters is that you have named what was quietly holding you back.
So let me ask you gently. What are you carrying right now that needs to be named before it can be released?
With love,
Usha Nagrani, Executive and Leadership Coach
Usha Nagrani, an HR Leader turned ICF Executive Coach, empowers senior management professionals and business leaders to achieve breakthroughs as expats, build cross-cultural teams, and navigate the exciting journey of career acceleration.
