Mastering Your Fear: Understanding & Harnessing Your Emotional GPS

What if the thing you're most afraid of isn't actually real?

Most of us walk around with fear as the thing standing between us and the life we want. But here's the question worth sitting with: How often have your worst fears actually come true?

What This Episode Explores

George and Liz dig into the uncomfortable truth about fear. Where it lives in our bodies. Why we give it so much power. And how to decide whether fear should be pushing you forward or protecting you from real danger.

The Lessons That Matter

Fear Is Usually a Story, Not a Fact

George has adopted a framework that rewires how he thinks about fear: F.E.A.R. stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.

"Most times, the stories we internalize, they're not real," George explains. "There's the thing that happens, which induces anxiety and stress. But then it's the story we tell ourselves about that moment that many times are just internalized stories, not necessarily what did happen or what will happen."

This isn't about dismissing fear. It's about questioning it. When fear shows up, is it responding to something real? Or is it a story your brain manufactured based on what might happen?

For you: The next time fear grips you, pause. Ask yourself whether you're responding to reality or a narrative you've built in your head.

Your Brain Is the Last Frontier

George describes a moment that captures what fear feels like for him: standing in line for a ski lift in Tennessee with his family. He's afraid of heights. The line takes forever. By the time he reaches the front, he's been marinating in anxiety for what felt like hours.

Then came the real challenge. The attraction itself was a series of bridges suspended in trees. He froze. His body wouldn't move.

"I had to juke my brain," George says. "I had to fake myself out and not look down, but just look like a foot and a half, two foot in front of me where I couldn't see through the boards."

He's come to see his brain as a space with switches. Rooms that can be lit up or shut down. "I literally have this thing where I know this is the place where fear lives," he explains. "Now that I have it trapped there, now that I can see it, now that it's not this mystical thing hiding from me. I know where you live. I know who you are, and now I can start to take care of you."

For you: Where does fear live in you? Can you locate it? Name it? Once you can see it, you have more power over it.

Generational Demons Are Real (But You Can Break the Chain)

Liz opens up about growing up in a physically and verbally abusive household. She shares that she recently discovered she'd ended up in another abusive relationship, despite years of therapy and intentional work.

"Oh my God. Even when I'm doing the work, am I doomed?" she admits asking herself.

George responds with something important: "Generational demons is a real thing. If your grandpappy or your grandma had an issue with x y z, more than likely your parents have a problem with it, more than likely you're gonna have a problem with it. Unless you take off the blinders."

The key isn't focusing on what you don't want to become. That keeps your attention locked on the very thing you're trying to escape.

"If you focus on 'I'm never gonna be that,' you're probably gonna be that," George says. "Instead of focusing on what you don't wanna be out of the mix, you need to focus on what you do wanna be. We are what we focus on."

For you: What patterns have you inherited that you're trying to break? Are you focused on avoiding them or building something new in their place?

Good Fear vs. Bad Fear

Not all fear deserves the same response. George draws a clear line.

Good fear keeps you safe. It's the instinct that tells you to pay attention in certain neighborhoods, to check the structural integrity of something before you trust it with your life, to respect forces bigger than yourself.

Bad fear is rooted in doubt. Doubting yourself. Doubting others. Doubting outcomes that haven't happened yet.

"Fear can be a direction, a motivator, a GPS to go away from things or go towards things," George says. "How do you make fear work for you versus working against you?"

He references Tim Ferriss's framework for defining fears instead of just defining goals:

Define the worst case outcomes. Prevent by identifying possible solutions. Repair by knowing your what ifs. Benefits by listing the positives if you push through.

For you: The next time fear shows up, run it through this framework. What's the actual worst case? What could you do to prevent it? How would you recover? What's on the other side if you push through?

Fear Should Be Behind You, Not In Front of You

Here's the reframe that ties everything together.

Most of us treat fear as something standing in our way. A wall. A stop sign. But George challenges that default.

"Instead of just fear being a stopper, fear being the thing in front of me always, I wanna have that choice," he says. "I literally wanna program myself to be able to say: behind me or in front of me."

When fear is behind you, it becomes a force pushing you forward. Through discomfort. Into growth. Toward the places you actually need to be.

When fear is in front of you, it's a signal to stop. A warning that something genuinely dangerous lies ahead.

The difference matters. And you get to choose.

Quotable Moments

"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality."

"I know where you live. I know who you are, and now I can start to take care of you in the way that you need to be taken care of."

"We are what we focus on. We are what we focus on."

Your Next Move

Before the next wave of fear hits, ask yourself these three questions:

Question it. Why am I fearful of this? Why am I feeling this way right now?

Weigh it. Is this a deep level fear or a light one? Is this a saber tooth tiger, or am I two feet off the ground on a box?

Decide its place. Should this fear be behind me, pushing me forward? Or in front of me, protecting me from real danger?

Fear doesn't have to be a prison. It can be a compass. But only if you stop letting it run the show.

Ready to hear the full conversation? Press play above. George and Liz go deeper into the stories, the frameworks, and the moments that shaped how they think about fear today.