Episode 34: Overcoming fear in your search for a job, with Geoff Thompson

October 18, 2015 Podcast

For episode 34 of the Graduate Job Podcast we have for the first time a BAFTA award winner on the show, the absolutely fascinating Geoff Thompson. We go deep this week, as Geoff and I delve into the topic of fear, and how it might be holding you back in your search for a job. What fears are holding you back from getting that graduate job? What stories are you telling yourself in your job search which are stopping you from applying to the job of your dreams? It’s a captivating episode, and it’s one you’re going to want to listen to more than once. Before we start don’t forget, I love to hear your feedback so do get in touch either by email or twitter, on twitter I’m @GradjobPodcast, and email is hello@graduatejobpodcast.com. What you love, people or companies you’d like to see on the show, I’d love to hear your thoughts, so send them all my way.

You can download the podcast to your computer or listen to it here on the blog. Additionally, you can subscribe via Spotify, iTunes, or Stitcher radio.

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • The fears that might be holding you back as you search for a job
  • Why you should be writing down a list of all your fears
  • Why confronting your fears is protein powder for the soul
  • How you can confront your limiting beliefs which are hindering your job search

SELECTED LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Check out the ‘How to Get a Graduate Job’ step-by-step online course at https://howtogetagraduatejob.com/
  • Don’t even think about applying for graduate jobs until you’ve read my free guide, ‘The 5 steps you must take before applying for graduate jobs’. Click here NOW. It will completely change the way you apply for jobs!
  • Would you like a free 30-minute video coaching call? Simply select a time that works here https://calendly.com/gradjob/ We can go over your CV, application, or anything that you are struggling with.
  • Assessment Day – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
  • Career Gym – Use code GJP to get 20% off all of their tests!
  • Job Test Prep – One of the top providers of psychometric tests. Click HERE and support the show
  • Geoff’s website
  • Geoff’s podcast
  • The Elephant and the Twig – One of Geoff’s books, and his recommendation for you. Click on the image below to buy NOW from Amazon!

Transcript – Episode 34 – Overcoming fear in your search for a job, with Geoff Thompson

Announcer: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, your home for weekly information and inspiration to help you get the graduate job of your dreams.

James:  Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your weekly home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each week I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, entrepreneurs, coaches and bloggers who bring decades of experience into a byte size weekly 30 minute show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had a decade ago when I graduated.

For episode 34 of the Graduate Job Podcast we have for the first time a BAFTA award winner on the show, the absolutely fascinating Geoff Thompson. We go deep this week, as Geoff and I delve into the topic of fear, and how it might be holding you back in your search for a job. What fears are holding you back from getting that graduate job? What stories are you telling yourself which are stopping you from applying to the job of your dreams? It’s a captivating episode, and it’s one you’re going to want to listen to more than once. As always, all links to everything we discuss and a full transcript are available in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/fear. Before we start don’t forget, I love to hear your feedback so do get in touch either by email or twitter, on twitter I’m @GradjobPodcast, and email is hello@graduatejobpodcast.com. Let me know what you love, people or companies you’d like to see on the show, I’d love to hear your thoughts, so send them all my way. But now without further ado, let’s push straight on with episode 34.

James: We have a very special guest today. Former nightclub bouncer, turned martial art instructor, prolific and bestselling author, and BAFTA award winning screenwriter, Geoff Thompson. A very warm welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.

Geoff: Thank you James. Thanks for having me on.




James: And today, the topic we’re going to cover is one which I think is massively important in people’s job search and plays a large part with respect to the companies or industries that people apply to, or might not apply to as the case may be. But also a topic which is never really discussed in this context, and that is one of fear. And today we’re going to explore thoughts around fear and what it might be that’s holding you back. So, to start with Geoff, I mentioned you’ve been on an amazing journey from nightclub bouncer to BAFTA award winning screen writer. Could you tell us, by way of introduction, how you came to make this transition? As I know that your thoughts on fear played an important part in this.

Geoff: When I was younger I had a huge ambition, you know, to live on the very dangerous edge, to experience life in all of its delicious extremes. I was really excited by the idea of, you know, this limitless reality. And it was always within my reach, but kind of seemed tantalising just beyond my grasp. I could never get a hold of it.  Standing between me and my dreams was this line of fear. That’s what I recognized, I was just afraid. So I decided to go out and, this was after, kind of, a long period of failed starts. Wanting to live authentically, but not able to live authentically because it was too much fear. The fear kind of forced me to retreat, and to shrink and actually feel ashamed of my ambitions. And that left me with massive depression actually, because I had no outlet for this massive ambition, this excitement for life. So, I’d find myself waking up at four in the morning, cold with sweat, my wife in bed next to me asleep, my kids in the other room, also asleep, in a house full of people, but completely alone. And I did what most people do when their fear hits them, I kind of went out into the world for answers, I looked specifically in books, but the books that promised to give me answers, you know, they didn’t. Either the authors didn’t know the answers or they were too afraid to put them on the page before them. Then at one point, I just thought, I used to get so depressed and so down about not living an authentic life that I just thought, “I’m going to do something about this.” I got angry actually, I was fed up with feeling afraid all the time. So, I thought, “I’m going to sit down and I’m going to write everything down that I’m afraid of, and I’m going to confront all of my fears one at a time.” So, basically, I drew a pyramid on a piece of paper, and I wrote all my fears down in ascending order. Least fear on the bottom step, worst fear on the top step, and I systematically started to confront my fears one at a time until I reached the peak. And that’s what I did. But, the interesting thing was, as I started to write the fears down, and of course the first fear, the main fear was that I was afraid to admit that I was afraid. Isn’t that strange? It’s very delicious of the denial. I was afraid to admit that I was afraid. Because, if I admitted that I was afraid, I thought that I might look weak. And if I admitted that I was afraid, it meant that I’d have to do something about it, and that really terrified me. So, writing down the first fear, which is the fear of admitting that I was afraid, was my first fear overcome right there. So, I started to confront my fears one by one, systematically, and each time I overcame a fear I grew in strength, I grew in experience, I grew in wisdom. When I got rid of a fear, when it was resolved, it created a vacuum in me, and that vacuum was filled with courage. But an interesting thing happened, as I was climbing the pyramid of fears, a little more subtle fears started to appear. Almost as though the mundane fears were like layers, or covers, that were sitting over top the things that I was really afraid of. I was afraid of, for instance, I was afraid of my potential, definitely I was afraid of success. I know that might sound strange, but, you know, success meant change. And that change might be the only constant, but it’s the one thing everyone is afraid of. If I was successful, how would that affect my wife? How would that affect my children? How would that affect my friends? If I suddenly went from being, ’Geoff the factory worker’ to ‘Geoff the nightclub bouncer,’ or’ Geoff the published author appearing on daytime TV with Richard and Judy?’ So, I was afraid of my own success, so fear of success went on the list. Then I realized I was afraid of my wife. And she was a good girl, but I was afraid of her. I allowed her to bully me. Anything for a quiet life, that’s what I kidded myself. But, actually, I was afraid of her. So, I was afraid of confronting her, of standing up to her. So, I put my first wife on the list. And I also realized I was afraid of my mum. I mean, I love her bones but I was afraid of, or more specifically, I was afraid of her withdrawing her love. The idea of her withdrawing her love terrified me also. It was a fear of abandonment. And I think that fear of abandonment came from the fact that I was sexually abused I was a when I was a boy, and this kind of twisted grooming man killed any trust I had in the world. So, a fear of abandonment went on the list as well. So, that’s basically what I did. I just started to confront the fears, and as I confronted the fears a strange thing happened. Every time I was able to confront a fear, the nature of the fear was liberated. The effulgence, the energy that was left in the fear transferred across to me, and I grew more courageous. And then the higher I climbed, the more courageous I became. And that lead me, you know, to changing jobs. That led me to eventually reaching the top of my pyramid, and confronting my ultimate confrontation, which was the fear of violence. And, of course, I did the only thing you can do when you have a fear of violence. I took a job as a nightclub bouncer in the most violent city in Europe for the size of the population. And believe me working in Coventry was like traversing all nine circles of the inferno. And then within a very short amount of time, within a decade I guess, I was in hundreds of fights, I witnessed thousands of violent situations. Four of my friends were murdered. But I went from being afraid of spiders in the bath, this is how I know it works, to being able to hold my own or stand my ground in life and death situations. So, when people say, we need something pragmatic, we need something that’s actually gonna work. Me doing my fear pyramid and confronting my fears actually worked for me. You know, it took me from being a frightened factory worker, to working on the world’s stage with films, theatre, and books. And one of the things I promised when I was going through this, I made a promise to myself. I said that when I find the truth, because the truth didn’t seem to be available, nobody wanted to talk about it. But I said, when I find the truth, I’m going to tell people. I’m going to tell people in books and articles. I’m going to tell people in films and plays. I’m going to tell people in talks, I’m just going to tell as many people about the truth, about what I found, that what they want to do, what they want to achieve is possible. It’s all possible. My life is the proof of that. I make my living as a writer, I live with the girl of my dreams, I go to work in my slippers. You know, I am living on that dangerous edge. I am experiencing life in all of its delicious extremes. I have coffee at two in the morning with my heroes. And also, people actually don’t do the obvious thing, they think that certain things aren’t possible. This is possible for them, but it’s not possible for me. They have limiting beliefs, but you only have to look outside the window at the vastness of the universe to see that anything is possible.  Everything is possible. But, in order for us to prove that it’s possible, we have to have the courage to stand up in front of the things we are afraid to do. We have to, kind of stand in that line of fear. We have to become the proof ourselves. So, that’s my life is continuant to do that, continuing to expand, I contract in order to expand, I contract my, kind of, my egoic fears, my false ego and I expand my conscious net. I just want to experience all of my potential, and if there is a fear standing between me and my potential, then my job is to dissolve that fear. The way to dissolve it is to stand in front of it, is to marinate in it, to embrace it, to intercourse with it.  So, from a distance, these fears look like three-dimensional monsters, but when we get closer to them they become two-dimensional cartoons, and then they dissipate when we embrace them.  So, I just encourage people to be very brave.

James: I think it’s really interesting that the first fear that went on there was the actual putting on that you were actually scared. Because, just thinking to conversations with friends, I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with a friend where they’ve actually said to me, “I’m quite scared.” As a bloke, it’s just not something that you really talk about at all or mention. Also, to talk about fears, I know it’s strange, but before I actually emailed you I can remember, I almost had a fear of getting in touch or reaching out. There was a little voice on my shoulder going, “Oh, well, you know he’s not going to reply.”

Geoff: Yeah, “Who am I to write to Geoff Thompson?” Not realizing that I’m just the same as you. I’m an ordinary bloke, and I live an extraordinary life, but that’s what we’re encouraging everybody to do. The thing with fear is that, of course, it tricks people into believing that they’re the only person in the world that feels like they’re scared.  I love the story of Messner, Reinhold Messner, the legendary climber. When he got stuck on the inhospitable mountains, Nanga Parbat, he was too afraid to go up. He was too afraid to go down. He was too afraid to stay where he was. And, at that point on the mountain, he was afraid to live. That’s what he said, he was afraid to live. When I heard that, I nearly cried, because that was me as a young man. You know, I was afraid to live, and what Messner was saying to me was that fear is a part of the human condition. We all feel it. What he encouraged me to do was to be very brave and was to embrace it, to marinate in it, to intercourse with it, to go towards the thing that I was afraid of, but what he was saying was that even legendary climbers, you know, still feel fear. I mean, he said he was in his tent on the mountain crying for his wife. But, it was such a relief to me to realize that I wasn’t the only person in the world that was afraid. But, it encouraged me to step forward and to be brave and it said to me, trust me you’ll move forward. And these fears have no reality unless you give them a reality. So, his message was, “Go out and face your fears.” And my message is exactly the same. Go out and systematically confront your fears, collect the power, collect the energy that’s in your fears. This is about challenging our beliefs, this is about challenging our perceptions, challenging old cognitions. You know, and proving that it is possible. And, of course, we know it’s possible because we see other people doing it, and we see the magnificence of what is out there. But, I love the idea about Messner as one of my heroes because he was afraid. I love the idea that Christ was afraid in the garden. I love the idea that Muhammad was afraid on the mountain. I love the idea that Arjuna was afraid in the battleground, and Arjuna didn’t transcend the battle from a classroom, he transcended the battle from in the battleground. So, we have to be inside it, we have to have the courage to sit in it. And there is nobody that it doesn’t challenge, but people like me, you know, I’m here to say to people, “What you’re aiming for is possible.” It’s possible. It’s all possible, and I’m the proof because I’ve gone through that door. It’s not easy, and it’s not even probable because most people won’t do it, most people won’t want to face those things, but it’s possible. And I try to encourage as many people as possible to actually, you know, to look at that. People that have worked with me have suddenly doubled their income because they’ve gone, “Well I’m going to try for that job, because I didn’t try for it before because I was afraid. But now I’m just going to try for it because I know I’m just as good as the other guy that’s doing it. The only difference between me and him is he’s doing it and I’m not.” And we have to admire their courage for doing that. But, you know, for somebody that’s not worked for a little while, or for somebody that’s been at home just filling in an application for a job is fearful. So I’m saying, write all your fears down, put them on the pyramid, confront them one by one, collect your power back. It’s all yours, it actually belongs to you. This is your kingdom; it’s been stolen from you by perceptions that manifest themselves as fears. These fears can be dissolved, and when they’re dissolved it’s not just that they’re dissolved and that they’re not there anymore, it’s that you collect treasure, literally. Our soul, or our authentic self, actually feeds off fear. Fear is food for the soul. So, when we go towards something that we’re afraid of, and we face it, our authentic self grows off that. It’s like protein powder for the soul. So, it’s encouraging people just to change their perceptions of what fear is. It feels as though it’s this three-dimensional monster, but it’s actually not. It’s just a fuel bank, it’s just an old shadow that can be converted into expendable cash.




James: I know when looking back at my career moves that I’ve made, and when I finished university, there were a couple of companies that I was really interested in applying to but never actually got around to applying to them just because my thought was, I was scared to apply. Maybe even for the fear of success, but I just thought well, “There’s no point in applying because I’m never going to get in.” I always fancied being a spy with a MI5, but never actually sent off an application because, I was, as you talked about, limiting beliefs. My limiting belief was that people from where I came from didn’t work for MI5, and what’s the point of even applying.

Geoff: People fail before they even start because they have belief that it’s not possible, or certainly it’s not possible for them. But actually, it’s possible for everybody. One of the big things I’ve learned from being exposed to consciousness, and being exposed to the Dao or to god, is that it’s all possible. Everything is possible. In Christian theology, they call it realized eschatology, they say that everything is already yours. Everything is the universe is already yours, you’ve just forgotten, or you’ve just lost the access key, or you’ve lost the code. So, our job is to go towards the things that we want to achieve and recognized that they’re already there, they’re already ours, they’re already possible, and we know they’re possible because it’s already been done other people are already doing it. And the good thing with me is that I’ve sat with all of these people who I’ve thought were different from me, who have won Oscars and BAFTAs, and been renowned martial artists, or successful authors, or millionaires, or billionaires. I’ve sat with them and they’re just the same as us, they’re just people same as us, they’re just living from a different perception. I did a course once, two people, there were a lot of people in the course, but there were two people who were partners on the first day. They didn’t know each other, they’d never met each other, they were both in tee-shirts and shorts, they both come from a similar background, working class background, and they didn’t know each other, this was the first time they’d met, but I knew them both. One of them had no money, and he had very limiting beliefs, and he was only able to come on the course because his granddad had died and left him some money, so he paid to come on the course. The other guy ran a company that turned over 120 million and he had 1,000 people working for him. The moment this one guy on the left, who believed that there was no potential, no possibilities, the government was against him, there’s not enough money around, the moment he partnered with the other guy those beliefs disappeared, because he could no longer hide in those beliefs. Those beliefs were quite convenient, they were very subjective, but when he was suddenly working with a guy just like him, in tee-shirts and shorts, who was turning over 120 million, and saying to me, “I don’t even feel like I’m touching the sides Geoff.” This guy could no longer use that as an excuse because he had proof it was possible. He couldn’t even say, “Well you’re different,” because this guy wasn’t different. This guy has got two arms, he’d got two legs, and you’ve got the same fears as everybody else. He just kept going into them, he just kept massively investing in himself. He was reading, he was learning, he was educating himself. He was continually contracting the things that stopped him from moving forward and expanding things that did move him forward. So, this guy was transformed on the first day because he goes, “Okay, well at least I can see now that it’s possible.” Then the next job is to go, “Okay. It is possible for him, but is it possible for me?” So then, we have to start looking at why we think it’s not possible for us. So if we start to imagine ourselves in that job and our objections come up, and our fears come up, our beliefs come up, our job is to just dissolve the beliefs and fears that stand between us and the things we want to do. So, I think there’s a book out called, ‘The Obstacle is the Way.’ But, the obstacles are the way, we dissolve the obstacles that stand between subject and object, between us and the things we want to do. So, it’s all possible, even if it’s not probable. And when I say that, that’s not a negative thing. It’s saying that it’s possible for anybody that has the courage to stand in front of the things they’re afraid to look at, which is the old limiting belief, and they call this deliberate suffering, we deliberately stand in front of the things that make us feel afraid.  And it might just be that our background is that, we’ve grown up in an environment where, you know like a tabloid environment, where people kind of say, “Don’t go above your station. Don’t forget where you come from. Who do you think you are? Don’t get above yourself. Don’t ask for too much money because, what do you think we are? Do you think we’re the Rothschild’s? You know, money doesn’t grow on trees. You know, be grateful with what you’ve got, and if you’re pretentious, don’t dare be pretentious because if you’re pretentious and you think you’re worth more than that, we’ll attack ya.” I was with a lad the other day, he said he’s just doing his degree and he got a one, he got a first on his degree. The first tests he got 100% on, three of his tests, and he posted it online to say, “I’m really happy.” And he got loads of reviews from people saying to him, “Who do you think you are? You know, you big head you bragger. Don’t get above yourself,” It’s like, “Don’t be excellent.” My wife said to him, “Don’t ever let anybody talk you out of being excellent. You are excellent, be excellent.” So, this guy, was deliberately holding himself back from his studies, because he didn’t want to stand out too much. I went to do a talk for a university as well, James, once. And there was about 200 people in the room, and the lecturer said to the group, “Okay, put your hand up if you think you’re exceptional.” And, bearing in mind that this university was an exceptional university, you couldn’t get into it unless you were exceptional, unless you had done the work.  I think one person put his hand up and he was hesitant. And he said, “Okay. Put your hand up if you’re ordinary,” and nearly 200 hands went up in the room. 200 people that thought they were ordinary, and they didn’t think they were ordinary, they knew they weren’t ordinary. They were too afraid to stand out, they were too afraid of what people might think about them. One guy actually put his hand up and said, “I think I’m below ordinary.” People are afraid to say, “Yes I’m good at this,” “Yes I have got this potential” or “Yes I can do this,” because if they do it, they feel like they might be attacked. But I’ve experienced the soul, I’ve experienced the authentic self, and it’s vast. It’s vast. There is nothing that will contain it, there’s no limitations. If we want to exercise that authentic self in the world, we need full expression. People are afraid to fully express themselves in case they get shot down. And this starts with, of course, what they call the greater jihad. The eternal wrestle. When we go on, we’re going to do this, and then this voice goes, “Well who do you think you are? You’re not anybody. You’re no good. You can’t do that. You’re nothing.” And we believe that, because we never challenge it. But that’s just an old chatter , that’s an old belief. So, our first job is to admit that we’re afraid and then to challenge those fears, not just to challenge them, but to recognise that fear is food. When we confront those fears, when we intercourse with those fears, literally when we embrace them, when we sit in the feelings, we can transform that energy, in that we can liberate the fear, we can get rid of the fear, and the energy that is locked into the fear, we can gobble up. We can use it as a protein, and that will expand our authentic self. And each time we do that we become more powerful.  This is what the Mexican Shamans did, they would go out into the night and they would hunt down their fears, because they said that the power was in the fear. The power was in the trauma. Rooney called it night traveling. We go out into the night and we’d hunt down their fears, because the doorway to potential is through that. So it’s kind of trying to get people to change their perceptions on their fear and just say, “Don’t believe anything. Don’t believe anything people don’t tell you. Don’t believe what it says on the television. Don’t believe what it says, you know, in the newspapers. It’s hugely subjective. Challenge it. Find out for yourself.  Don’t just repeat what other people have told you. If you have a perception that’s not possible, challenge that perception.”

James: So, you talked about limiting beliefs and how tall poppy syndrome of people trying to bring you down. If you are surrounded with people who are telling you that you can’t do things, don’t do that, you’re not good enough to do that, don’t apply for that job, you’re not going to get it; What advice would you give to them, in that context, of how they can keep on pushing themselves and going towards their fears?




Geoff: We have to change states, we have to change frequencies.You know,  if I’m on local radio, if I’m on kind of, I don’t know, like on a real local Cov FM and it’s kind of an amateurish radio station, I can wander around that all day, wander around that frequency. I’m not going to find radio 4, I’m not going to find radio 1. I have to change frequency. So changing frequency means we don’t announce to everybody, we already know the people who are going to shoot us down but we keep announcing our plans to them in the hope that they’ll support us. And then they batter us. So don’t make big announcements to people. Don’t show people your plans when they’re an embryo. That’s the first thing. And the second thing is, as you start to change states, as you start to challenge these old beliefs, and start to go towards the things you want to succeed in, and go towards your darma, you will find that you just won’t be in the company of these people anymore, because they won’t be able to breath in your frequency. It’s like a different, it’s like a finer air. So, you can manually start that process by changing what you watch on television, changing what you read in the newspapers. If you watch television or read in the newspapers, you’ll probably feel as though you’re never going to work again, and that the sky is going to fall at any moment. Or you’re going to get blown up by a terrorist, or someone’s just going to come randomly shooting through the cinema that you’re in, and that all of the banks have got the money because they’re greedy, and all the politicians are corrupt, and there is no hope. The only hope is the x-factor or the lottery. That’s the kind of subjective information you’re going to get if you go to the normal places of sustenance. So what we do is we start going to other places. We go to podcasts like this, and we talk to people who have experienced truth. We buy, we invest in books, we invest in education, we invest in philosophy, or we invest in books in religion. And then we start to, we’ll actually start to attract different friends. We will lose old friends, and they might kick and scream as they go, but we will attract new friends. This is what, trying to think who it was, one of the great motivational speakers, anyway, said, “Go out and find others.” Go out and find the others. Go and look for other people who are talking like you’re talking. Like this podcast, someone’s found this. Go to TED.com and listen to the thousands of speakers on there who are telling you what’s possible. Invest in books on the internet, build your own library, and you’ll automatically start attracting the right people, the people that are talking the same language. They are out there, but we have to find them. Although, when we start talking this language they will find us. So, we also change the way we talk. Instead of saying things are difficult, we can say things are great. Things look really challenging. And instead of saying there’s no work out there, we know there’s work out there, and we don’t even find jobs. We create jobs. People think they find jobs, but we don’t, we create them. We go out and create the work. We go out and create the opportunities. So, we just change the language. And a lot of this can start from reading simple books, like The Elephant and the Twig. There’s a great book called How to Win Friends and Influence People , it’s an old book, it’s not a great title, but it’s a fantastic book about you taking control of your own reality, you taking control of your own perceptions. And you’ll just start to. The people around me, I mean, the people that gravitate towards me are the people that are on the same wavelength as me; the people that want to make films, the people that want to make a difference, people that want to create change, people that want to experience life in all of its extremes. I mean I don’t attract naysayers anymore because it’s just not the frequency I’m in. So, we have to change frequency or, what Swedenborg called changing states.

James: Geoff that’s brilliant advice. Unfortunately, time though is running away with us but, speaking of books leads us nicely onto our final questions. Is there one book that you would recommend to our listeners that they read?

Geoff: I’ve just mentioned two books now, which I think The Elephant and the Twig, I think, really has a good effect on people. You can get that from Amazon or you can get it from geoffthompson.com. It’s a really simple motivational book with lots of pragmatic advice. There’s an old book called Psycho-cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, again it’s quite an old book now, but the message it in is very very strong. And there’s quite a few current things out there, you know, like Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within, stuff like that. Just stuff to kick start ya. So I would say they are really good books, and I did a book as well, there’s a book by Susan Jeffers called Feel the Fear and do it Anyway, which is a great book. And I did a book called, Fear the Friend of Exceptional People, which I think would really encourage people as well.

James: Excellent. And all of those will be linked to in the show notes, so check out the show notes at graduatejobpodcast.com/fear/ and you’ll find links to everything that Geoff has discussed there. And Geoff, what one website would you recommend that listeners should go to?

Geoff: I would say, at the moment, there’s two I would say go to. I would say go to TED.com, which is full of the most current kind of leading edge speakers in the world today. It’s a really good site with free material. And you could also go to my site which is geoffthompsoninspired, or geoffthompson.com and link the inspired site, there’s about 100 free podcasts on there about all of these kind of things. If people are motivated by this particular talk, they can go on there. There’s probably another 100 free talks and you can go on there, and access and that’s on geoffthompson.com. That’s Geoff with a G, Thompson with a P.

James: And I definitely recommend Geoff’s podcast, it’s brilliant. It’s really really really interesting every week. And finally Geoff, what one tip can listeners implement today to help them on their job search?

Geoff: There’s a great verse in the Bhagavad Gita, one of the big Hindu texts that says, “Lift self, by the self, never let the self droop down. The self is the self’s only enemy, the self is the self’s only friend.” So it’s saying that the owness is on you. You have no enemies other than the enemies that you’ve got in yourself, your own beliefs, your own perceptions. And the only friend that you have is yourself. When you are balanced and aligned within yourself, you’ll see that reflects in the world around you, as within, as without.

James: Geoff that’s a brilliant point for us to finish up. Many many thanks for joining the Graduate Job Podcast today.

Geoff: It’s a pleasure.

James: Firstly thankyou to Geoff, I’m a big fan of his podcast and it was greatly have him on mine today. As always, I’ve picked out three things that stood out for me. The first is on acknowledging your fears. I loved Geoff’s comment that fears trick you into thinking you are the only one who is afraid. As I said to Geoff, men I know aren’t open to actually talking about their fears, now that might just be my mates, but I doubt it, have an honest conversation with yourself about what it is that you are actually scared of. Is it applying to the companies, the interviews, assessment centres, networking.  Getting up and doing a presentation in front of people. Is it the fear that you won’t get the job? Is it the fear that you might get the get the job and not be good at it,….or that you will get the job and be amazing at it and a huge success. Different people will have different fears. The first part though is in acknowledging them with yourself.

Which leads onto the second key thing for me, in then having recognised fears, to begin to confront them.  I loved Geoff’s fear pyramid as a tool to record them and tick them off, and the idea that fears dissolve infront of you when you confront them. And then become food for your soul. I know that often when I’ve been fearing something and putting it off, when I finally pluck up the courage to do it, you look back and wonder what the worry was about. Protein powder for your confidence as he said. So 1 recognise those fears. 2. Record them, and then confront them. Which leads then to 3. The third point for me was on challenging those limiting beliefs of what actually is possible, as Geoff said, everything is possible, it might not be probable. But it is possible. Hard work and commitment is what makes it possible. But why not you? Why not apply to those amazing companies you’ve been thinking about? Why not you having that unbelievable career. Other people have them, and they have a job they love and would love to get, they’re no different to you. Yes, it might seem scary to go for it , but face your fears and do it anyway. With the advice that my guests have given over the previous 34 episodes you can make achieving any job possible.

So there you go, episode 34 finished. As I mentioned I’m a big fan of Geoff and his work, and recently saw his new play which is called the pyramid texts which has been turned also into an awarding winning film. If you get the chance to see it on stage or on screen, go and see it.  You won’t be disappointed! Also check out his podcast Geoff Thomson Inspired which is linked to in the show notes.

If you’ve enjoyed the show today please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.  It helps new listeners to find the show and it does put a big smile on my face. Do join us next week, when we discuss numerical tests, verbal tests, and every other psychometric test you can think of!! I’ll tell you now, it’s a goodie. I hope you enjoyed the episode today, but more importantly, I hope you use it, and apply it. See you next week.

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