Michael Carroll’s new book, Fearless at Work: Timeless Teachings for Awakening Confidence, Resilience and Creativity in the Face of Life’s Demands, asks what most of us want from our work life. He writes, “Given the demands and relentless pace of our modern-day workplace, it is little wonder that most of us would like a little stress-free happiness on occasion. Success and fulfillment? A little appreciation for a job well done? Isn’t that what we are all looking for at work?”
Carroll proposes that while everyone wants to be happy and successful at work, what everyone is really hoping for is to be confident. One of the challenges to being confident, according to the book, is rediscovering our natural fearlessness.
The author writes, “Being fearless when losing a job or when facing any of life’s challenges is not about learning to defend ourselves.” Instead fearlessness at work is being instinctively resourceful and at ease when facing tough times.
Carroll offers 38 phrases or “slogans” designed to provide instructions for awakening one’s fearlessness when needed in everyday life. The book is divided into five sections with slogan for each section. The sections include:
1. Five primary slogans
2. Exploring the ironies of cowardice
3. Taming the mind
4. Establishing a fearless presence
5. Living a skillful life
The five primary slogans include:
1. Face the fierce facts of life
2. No delight; no courage
3. Recognize fear
4. Discover the jewel of the fearless abundance
5. Command gracefully
Carroll proposes that work is such an integral part of everyone’s life and yet most seem to struggle or become overwhelmed by the challenges that every workplace produces. In the first of the five primary slogans, Carroll writes about facing the facts of life.
“To live a fearless, confident life and resolve the challenge of cowardice, we must examine the distressing side of our experience: we must face the fierce facts of life.”
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