Unleash Your Potential: Conquering Fear to Achieve Career Success S5E05

If you feel stuck, scared to make a change, or frustrated that you’re not following through on the ideas and dreams in your heart… this episode is for you.

Today, Sheri unpacks the real reason ambitious, successful mid-career women freeze when they feel called to something more. It’s not lack of clarity. It’s not motivation. And it’s definitely not time management.

Using research from Harvard Business Review, Duke University, McLean Hospital, and the KPMG Women’s Leadership Study, Sheri reveals what’s actually holding you back — fear, doubt, emotional avoidance, and the confidence gap.

You’ll learn:

✓ Why 95% of ideas never make it past the starting line
✓ The Attitude Wheel: the cycle every woman hits when starting something new
✓ What really happens at 6:00 — fear, freeze, distraction, and self-doubt
✓ The difference between clarity and confidence (and why clarity alone isn’t enough)
✓ Why successful women avoid career-changing risks (KPMG study)
✓ How to move from 6:00 to 9:00 faster, with less spiraling
✓ What Sheri sees in her clients at the end of her 10-week program — and why most stall
✓ The new Calling Creator Collective™ and how it supports you through fear and follow-through

If you’ve been feeling called to a new direction but can’t seem to take the next step, this episode will help you understand why — and give you the pathway to move forward with confidence.

Take our free 12-question quiz to see if it's right for you and get your next action step. https://discoveringyourcalling.com/quiz

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Website - www.sherimiterco.com
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Matthew 5:14-16 is the inspiration for this podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Sheri Miter (01:20):
Did you know most dreams never make it past the
idea stage?
Harvard Business Review reportsthat around 95% of new ideas
never make it to market.
And Duke University's School ofBusiness found that less than
half of people with a businessidea ever take even the simplest
first step, like even talkingto one potential customer.

(01:41):
Not because the idea was bad,not because the person wasn't
capable, but because fear stopsthem before they ever even
start.
Welcome to the Discovering YourCalling podcast.
I'm your host, Jerry Miter.
I'm here to help you unleashyour strengths and get clarity

(02:02):
on your calling.
I believe when you find yourpurpose in life, fulfillment,
joy, and success will follow.
If you're ready, pop in thoseearbuds, hit that follow button,
and join me on this journeytoward discovering your calling.
And it's not just businessideas.
A widely cited University ofScratton study shows that only

(02:25):
about 8% of people achieve thegoals they set, which means 92%
of goals quietly die in thebackground of everyday life.
And if you've ever stalled outon something important to you or
didn't follow through, or findyourself asking, why do I stop
before I finish my goals orplans?
You are not alone.

(02:47):
And you're not broken.
You're human.
You're experiencing a cycleevery single one of us goes
through.
Anytime we are doing somethingnew, something outside of our
comfort zone, we are going to gothrough this cycle.
And it can happen when we'rebuying a house, when we're
training to run a marathon, oreven when we're creating our

(03:07):
calling.
Or maybe I should say,especially when we're creating
our calling.
And it's a cycle I teach insideof the Discovering Your Calling
Academy, and I call it theattitude wheel.
And once you understand it, youwill hold the key to not
letting fear ever keep you fromachieving your biggest goals
again.
So what is the attitude wheel?

(03:29):
So I want you to imagine aold-fashioned clock.
You know, the ones with thehands on it that have the 12,
you know, have all the numbersgoing around in a circle.
I know in this digital age,some of you may not even know
what that looks like.
So imagine a circle.
And at the top you have 12.
Over on the, if you keep goingclockwise, uh, you have three

(03:51):
o'clock, then down on the bottomyou have six o'clock, and then
up on the other side, you havenine o'clock.
So picture this clock, picturethis circle.
And at 12 o'clock is theexcitement stage.
This is the stage once we'vecommitted to achieving a goal,
to doing something new.
It's the excitement that wefeel when we make that

(04:12):
commitment.
It's the place where we are,where the idea feels amazing,
you feel super energized, andyou think, this is it, I can do
this.
That's the place we want tostay.
Unfortunately, what happens iswe slowly start sliding down the
clock and we hit three o'clock.
And around three o'clock, whereis where a little bit of doubt

(04:34):
creeps in.
Now we're still excitement,excited, we still feel like we
can accomplish the thing, but westart to have some what ifs
creep in and we startquestioning: is this the right
thing?
Am I capable of doing this?
I'm not really sure.
Did I make a mistake?
But we still feel motivated toachieve the goal.

(04:55):
But then what happens is wecontinue to slide down and we
hit six six o'clock.
And this is the bottom of thecircle.
And it's six o'clock that isthe danger zone.
This is the place where we youknow have that fear.
We freeze up, we startoverthinking, distraction
happens, procrastination, westart blaming others or our

(05:16):
circumstances.
And unfortunately, it is at sixo'clock where a lot of dreams
and goals die because theydon't, we don't recognize what's
happening.
And what happens at six o'clockis we think it's a sign.
We think it's it's just us.
We think we made a mistake ofeven setting the goal or making

(05:38):
the change or going after a bigdream.
But in reality, it's just theattitude wheel.
It's normal for us to feel thisway.
The key is to recognize whathas happened and to pull the
tools out of our toolbox, ourmindset toolbox, so that we can
get back up to nine o'clock asquickly as possible.

(06:00):
Because when we can get thatmomentum going again and get
back up to nine o'clock, nineo'clock is where we start
remembering who we are.
We reconnect to our strengths,we reconnect to our resilience,
we remind ourselves of past winsand we say, I have done hard
things before and I can do this.

(06:20):
And we remember why we startedin the first place.
And the great thing about nineo'clock is once you get that
momentum going out of six intonine, it's very easy to keep on
going to get back up to 12o'clock, where that excitement
lives again.

Now, here's the thing (06:36):
this cycle is inevitable.
It happens anytime, and I dareto say, every time we start
something new.
You probably recognize time youcan think back and recognize
when you've been in this cycle.
Maybe you know exactly whereyou're at right now in this
cycle, whether it be 12, 3, ohno, 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock, or

(06:59):
back up at 12.
It happens when in business, ithappens when we're making
career changes, it happens infitness routines and diets, it
happens anytime there's alifestyle shift.
It just happens.
And we can't stop it fromhappening.
But what we can do is equipourselves again with the tools

(07:21):
to move quickly from six tonine.
And I will tell you, I'vereckoned, I learned about this
attitude will, I don't rememberwhat my mentor at the time
called it, probably 20-somethingyears ago.
And it is stuck with me.
And I see myself slide aroundthis cycle so many times.

(07:41):
The key thing is I can honestlygo through this entire cycle in
about five minutes flat now.
Times that it used to take meto go through the cycle in about
five days, now is that fiveminutes, depending on what it
is, because I have the tools.
I have, I recognize what'shappening, I pull out the right
tool to get me quickly from sixo'clock to nine o'clock.

(08:04):
Here's the emotional truth,though, behind six o'clock.
Why do we even get stuck there?
Why does it even happen?
Now, according to McLeanHospital, which is a Harvard
Medical School affiliate,procrastination isn't a time
management issue.
It's an emotional avoidance.
And procrastination is one ofthe reasons we get stuck at six

(08:26):
o'clock, because procrastinationhappens to avoid fear, anxiety,
overwhelm, self-doubt, or thatfeeling of we're just not
enough.
And in today's world ofconstant distractions, our
phones, notifications, socialmedia, it's so easy to just numb
that discomfort instead offacing it head on.

(08:46):
And that's why sometimes we getstuck at six o'clock because we
procrastinate, because we don'twant to face our fears.
And honestly, it's your nervoussystem trying to protect you
from emotional risk.
But the key is it's learninghow to work your way through it
instead of avoiding it.
Here's another stat I want togive you.

(09:07):
I know I'm full of stats today,but um, this is why it's so
important for the women I workwith, women like you.
One more stat said according toKPMG's women's leadership
study, only 43% of women arewilling to take bigger career
risks, even when those risksalign with their goals or

(09:29):
calling.
And that number one reason theyavoid those risks, lack of
confidence, not lack of talent,not lack of experience, not lack
of skills, but confidence.
And I've always said that oneof the ways to overcome that
lack of confidence is knowledge.
And it's overcoming the fearbecause you see procrastination,

(09:53):
that lack of confidence, thatfear, all of those are the
signs, are the things thathappen when we get stuck at six
o'clock.
And I see this happen all thetime, unfortunately, in
discovering in my discoveringyour calling academy.
I see brilliant, talented womenwith expertise, expertise,

(10:14):
strengths, and purpose-drivenbusiness ideas finish our 10
weeks together with clarity, acalling aligned plan, and ideas
that can genuinely make adifference in the lives of
others.
They know the problem they'remeant to solve, they know the
people they're meant to help,they know the steps they need to

(10:34):
make because we have built astrategy plan together.
But sadly, once our one-on-onetime ends, many of them hit six
o'clock.
Fear creeps in, life gets busy,their confidence wavers, the
idea gets pushed aside,procrastination sets in.
Not because the idea wasn'tgood, not because they aren't

(11:00):
good, definitely not that one,but because clarity alone
doesn't overcome fear.
Now, some of those clientsrecognize it because we've
talked about this and theyfilled their toolbox with the
right tools and they can getthemselves quickly back to nine
o'clock, but some of them nevermake it past six.

(11:22):
And honestly, my friends, thatbreaks my heart.
I hate seeing so many greatideas left along the roadside.
I hate seeing so many brilliantwomen not fulfill their calling
because of that fear.
And that is also why I amexpanding the Discovering Your

(11:43):
Calling Academy in 2026.
Because I've realized clarityisn't enough.
Strategy isn't enough.
You need the tools, thesupport, the community, the
accountability, and thestrengths aligned momentum to
move through the fear andactually build what you're

(12:03):
called to build.
So I'm excited to say startingin 2026, every Discovering Your
Calling Academy student will notonly get 10 weeks of powerful
one-on-one clarity and strategywith me, but they'll also get a
full year inside the CallingCreator Collective.
Or I might be calling it C3 forshort.

(12:24):
That year is going to be fullof monthly workshops by myself
or other mentors and experts,monthly coaching, but it'll have
the support.
It'll have the strengths, it'llhave the community and the
tools to move from six o'clockto nine o'clock quickly,
consistently, and confidently.

(12:45):
It'll be a year designed tohelp you overcome
procrastination, break throughthe fear, and step into that 8%
of goal achievers.
This is where dreams stop dyingat six o'clock and start
becoming the work and life youwere created for.
Discovering your callingacademy plus C3 is how the

(13:07):
clarity becomes creation,creation becomes community, and
community builds the confidenceso you can go live your calling.
Here's the little selfish truthbehind it all.
I want to see these ideasbecome reality for my clients.
I feel like we have so manybreakthroughs together and ideas

(13:27):
are planted.
I want to see the fruitfulharvest with my clients.
And that's what will happenwith this new addition to the
Discovering Your CallingAcademy.
So, my friend, as we wrap upthis episode, what tools do you
need to put in your mindsettoolbox so that you can swiftly
move through the six o'clockphase the next time you are

(13:50):
working on a big goal?
Let me know.
The other thing to know is nowthat you know this attitude
wheel, just be mindful of it andrecognize that when you start
sliding down from three to six,it's not a sign that you should
stop.
It's not a sign that you're onthe wrong path.
It's just normal.
It's just part of the process.
So quickly pull out those toolsand get back up to nine o'clock

(14:11):
and up to 12 o'clock.
Now, if this episode today hasstirred something up in you
regarding your future work andlife, your next step is simple.
Book a clarity call with me.
It's a no-pressure conversationto explore where you are, what
you're being called to do next,and see if this is the right
program for you or not.
The link is in the show notes.

(14:33):
And if you'd rather, feel freeto DM me over on Facebook or
email me at sherry at sherrymitreco.com.
And remember, Sherry'sS-H-E-R-I, Sherry Mitre Co.
S-H-E-R-I, M-I-T-E-R-C-O.com.
I would love to hear yourstory.
And remember, my friend, you'vebeen created to live a life of

(14:54):
fulfillment, freedom, impact,and joy.
We'll see you back here in twoweeks.
Thank you for spending thistime with me.
My hope is something you heardtoday inspires you to take
action toward discovering yourcalling.
I just have two favors to askof you before you go.
One, if you found value andenjoyed this episode, please

(15:14):
leave us a review on ApplePodcasts or Spotify, and you
might hear your review read on afuture episode.
And two, can you share thisepisode with three friends who
will also enjoy it as much asyou did?
By doing these things, you willhelp us grow the podcast to
make a bigger impact on theworld.
And until next week, remember,you've been created to live a

(15:36):
life of fulfillment, freedom,purpose, success, and joy.