Is Fear Holding You Back?

It was supposed to be the perfect moment—until the mosquitos showed up.

I was running a leadership program in rural Mexico for a global financial institution.

Our group spent the week working with women micro-entrepreneurs who made tortillas for a living. They would wake up at 4:30 am each day, cook 100 tortillas over an open stove, walk for an hour to the market, sell them, and walk for an hour back home to then take care of their families. The next day, they would do it all over again.

Their difficult lives were in sharp contrast to how much they actually enjoyed every day and how warm and friendly they were towards us. For participants, this raised questions about their own lives and their definitions of success and happiness.

By midweek, we were ready for a pivotal moment: a nature-based reflection session on a small mountain overlooking the Mexican countryside. It was a spiritual site right next to the ruins of ancient pyramids. A perfect setting for deep personal reflection around values, purpose and leadership.

We arrived at the site and settled down on the ground. I read an introductory text and a few poems. Then, I sent everyone on a one-hour silent walk with two simple yet profound questions: Who am I, and why am I here?

But as I sat there, preparing myself for the deep sharing session, I realised we had an uninvited guest: mosquitos. Hundreds of them. They swarmed around me, biting and buzzing, turning this serene moment into a potential disaster. My mind raced—how could I have overlooked this? My carefully planned reflection session was about to be ruined by a bunch of tiny pests!

As people started to trickle back from their walk, I sat in silence, welcoming everyone with a serene face as they entered the mosquito crucible that was waiting for them. As everyone sat down, I waited for my perfect programme design to crumble down in front of my eyes.

Except.. nothing happened.

Not a single bite, not a single buzz. The participants shared deeply personal stories in one of the most magical reflection moments I’ve ever been part of.

The mosquitos, which moments earlier seemed like a looming disaster, simply… disappeared.

We often fall prey to our own imaginary fears that never materialise. Our thoughts paint vividly dramatic negative scenarios of how the future may unfold and how things will surely fall apart.

We change our course of action to avoid our fears or worst, we do not move forward at all, stopped and haunted by our imagination.

Except, like the mosquitos in my story, most of these fears never happen.

What fears are holding you back at the moment? Are they ‘real’ or ‘imaginary’? What is possible when you move past them?