What’s covered:
3 tactics to combat fear and create a life you love. Thoughts designed for people that consistently strive for radical improvement. This is not the strategy everyone subscribes to and I honor that.

Intro

My name is Jeff Gottschalk, founder of Root Momo, a new startup designed to make unlocking human potential and shattering limiting patterns, more attainable than ever before.

As a result of my own mental health battles and the ability to overcome them, it’s led to an obsession to make changes that not only get results, but that last. Fascinated by human ability to influence our own decisions and the decisions of others. Captivated by frameworks and systems and how they associate from one area of life to another. Passionate about how small wins stack and what’s achieved when you keep getting back up, no matter the circumstances.

You might be asking, “Where in the heck did “Root Momo” come from?
I started by writing down words that are important to me. Love, trust, belief, confidence, source, momentum. I wanted a fun word, meaningful, and with a .com available ;). After lots of doodles head banging, it finally appeared.

Root Momo represents two critical elements for growth. Root signifies the importance of finding the source of something good or bad, a critical component for lasting change. Momo represents momentum. The powerful force that makes something unstoppable and unbreakable, when it finally breaks through. Root Momo, say that 10 times fast!

3 tactics to combat fear

1. Change Your State

Tony Robbins (in my opinion, the Michael Jordan of personal development) believes this is where to start. I’ve implemented his suggested exercises on state for years now and it’s made the biggest impact on removing fear from my life.

Would you agree that when you change the way you feel, it changes your actions and thoughts?

Let’s do a small exercise as an example.

Close your eyes. Three soulful breaths in and out your nose. Picture a time when you were on fire, full of life, excited, filled with love and gratitude. Go there. Feel those emotions in your body, like they were here now. Feel the warmth, see the loved ones, feel the emotion, really, actually, feel it. Give it 30 seconds to a minute, then open your eyes.

Is there a better decision or choice you might come to from this place, different from moments ago? That’s changing your state.
You can tap into this anytime you want. Just like turning up the volume on a song, you can crank up the volume of your state.

Many mornings I start with Tony’s priming video, found here:

I always leave this video feeling so grateful and fired up for life. Really worth the watch.
Tony uses the word incantation to describe this technique. He sees the difference between an incantation and an affirmation as: affirmations are something we say and an incantation is something we feel and believe. Doesn’t matter what you call it, the point is to change your physiology, a place where you can serve the greater good at the highest level.

I think we can all agree, “launching” anything is the hardest part. Think about the force it took to get Space X’s Falcon 9 off the ground. Take anything in life you’re proud of, most likely it took many mistakes, hardships and lots of momentum before it “took flight”. An example are mornings you want to stay in bed. Sometimes it takes brutal force to get up and start the day. On those days, have you ever looked back in the evening, amazed by what was accomplished? Despite how impossible leaving your bed may have seemed? You demanded a state change in order to launch yourself into life. Can you recall a specific time this happened? Can you remember the thought or action that triggered you to finally get up? Getting in the shower? A song? Did you tell yourself you were a lazy piece of you know what?” Whatever it was, you did something to change the way you felt. What are other ways to change your state? Maybe it’s praying , playing sports, exercising , watching movies, breathing deeply or meditating. Do you use other methods such as drugs, alcohol, food, or smoking? Not here to judge, we can save healthy and unhealthy state options for another article. The point is these are all ways to change state because they literally change your bio chemistry and propel us into upcoming actions and choices.

Here’s a strategy I use to implement incantations.

I’ll go into my car, blast inspirational background music and yell uplifting phrases as loud as I can, on repeat, until I can feel the words I’m saying through my entire body. I end the incantation on a powerful note and….. BAM…. start my day from that state and that moment.

I have felt such deep levels of energy, gratitude, and passion from this exercise. It’s contributed to some of the highest levels of performance I’ve ever achieved and fueled the creation of some of my most cherished moments and memories in life.
So, If you are on the road and see someone driving next to you that looks to be out of their mind, don’t assume road rage, it could be me or someone else changing their state!

A statement I recently wrote for an incantation, feel free to use it. If you give it a try ( with or without this script) send me a comment, I would love to hear about your experience.

“In every moment my soul is filled with more love, more certainty, more joy, more passion and more drive. Fear, doubt, worry and lack leaves me now. I am guided. I am loved by god. Everything is happening for me. I see myself and others through the lens of love. I see myself and others through the lens of the soul. My ability to improve others lives flows effortlessly and abundantly. I am happy, I am grateful. I have an insatious hunger to grow and accomplish my goals and dreams. I am financially abundant. Peace fills me now and always.”

It’s so amazing how one’s perception can shift when you hear and feel the words you believe with all your heart, from your own mouth, with such emotion and force. Game changer.

2. Take Action

I think we know from a common sense level that when we experience fear, if we can keep moving and make decisions, fear reduces. Easier said than done. I believe you can change anything. I believe there are countless wacky, non socially normal/acceptable thoughts and feelings and emotions we experience that get bottled inside and suppressed. Things we’re curious about and/or don’t understand. Life happens fast. Proper time to process and organize thoughts, develop beliefs and opinions can be neglected and believe this is a big source of fear.
Deciding to question, inquire, and attack the mind noise is where things get real. There’s a difference between ruminating to the point of insanity vs diving into your fears in a healthy way. Deciding to bring resources, time, ideas, evaluation and empathy to these areas can really work wonders. Due diligence for things that interest you, bug you, limit you, scare you, grow you, change you, create conflict, create confusion. No matter how wacky they seem… No matter how wacky they seem.

We can only process so much at a time, we need empathy and we need patience. Knowledge really is power. Gaining clarity for why things are, how they work, changes brain chemistry. Puts things in their “correct folder”, which frees up “bandwidth”. Saves time because through newly formed distinctions and insights, we find out what we don’t want, which leads to more clarity, which speeds up the ability to get what we do want.
Releasing and letting go is a skill one must master to take more action. ( definitely its own topic) but regarding action and how letting go plays a part, a core belief I have is the past is the past, a resource to learn from. Who we are in this moment doesn’t have to be who we were in the past. Design your life. Challenge it, look stupid, give yourself permission. If you look into it and decide you want and can change it, do it. If you ultimately decide you can’t change it or don’t like the options, change your perspective.

How do we dive into change without going nuts? How do we keep balance while heading for uncharted waters?
I’ve chosen this belief, “things are always perfect ( perfectly imperfect!)”. That’s my base. There’s no problem, there’s NOTHING that breaks unconditional self love, we have all we need in every moment to live our dreams. This rooted place allows going to “the change zone” with a “Nothing to lose” mindset, instead of a “Can’t feel joy UNTIL” mindset. Massive and liberating shift.

3. Faith

Religious beliefs vary ( an understatement!). I think everyone has something they believe in that helps them through uncertain times. What is that for you? “God”, “Jesus” “Higher Power”, “Intuition”, “heart”, “Inner Voice”, “Source”, “Love”, “Gut” “a feeling” “Science”? “A thought” All beautiful and I’m sure that list is very incomplete. I classify this group as Faith. “Something” that gives you the desire to keep going when you don’t understand, without spinning out of control.

Here’s how the dictionary defines faith:

“Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”

Something that gives certainty, a deep knowing of how things will play out. How do you act when you are filled with certainty in your life? When faith is strong? Do things just happen with ease and pleasure? I know they do for me.

Do you think higher levels of faith reduce fear? How can we bring more faith to our lives?
Like any area we want to find success, we must ask why.
Here’s some questions you can ask around faith:

What will this allow me to give to others?
What will I feel?
What will I become?

Some reasons why: More Peace, joy, and energy. being fully present in the moment. Enhancing love and connection. Fatih promotes thriving rather than surviving. Starves fear. Reduces stress. Ability to weather storms and remain fully rooted. Creates more depth.

Also Important to look at what happens without faith. Gaining leverage regarding the level of pain you could feel if you don’t increase your faith , is one of the best ways to create an urgency to make a change now.

What low levels of faith lead to: Depression, endless terrorizing mind loops, validation seeking, people pleasing, low energy, low self esteem, becoming the victim, toxicity and negativity.

What’s your outlet for faith? Church, synagogue, monastery, love, kindness, yoga, meditation, the bible, nature, science, metaphysical existence. What do you choose?

Take action. We know we can build muscle wherever we choose. To improve faith we need to build our spiritual muscle. “Repetition is the mother of skill”. We must keep honing in on the fundamentals. I’m sure there’s an area of your life you’re crushing. Which fundamentals are you applying? Hard work? Persistence? Consistency? Teamwork? Communication? Carry those success patterns into the faith department. I’m pretty sure you know what the outcome will be.

Find your compelling reason why, choose your outlet, put in the reps.

There’s a quote that goes something like, “All Musicians have access to the same strings, chords and notes, it’s their interpretation that creates the music”.
It’s fascinating how patterns in one area of life have similar associations in other areas of life. This article focuses on fear but the principles needed to limit fear are no different than the ones needed to remove things in other parts of your life. Most of the time, we already know exactly what we need to do at a subconscious level. When we give ourselves time to process and evaluate, it’s amazing what we find, which often times includes the words to help express it.

We must not take “our strings” for granted. We need to bring resources and new ideas to the strings we have. We must have faith in our own music.