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Pearls Perfected Institute

The Real Fear That Should Drive You

Oct 1 / Dr. Janice R. Love

October is here. The leaves are turning, the air feels different, and surprisingly, my tomato plants are starting to grow. The year is slowly winding down. This is the season when many of us start to look back at the goals we set with so much hope and energy back in January. If you take a moment to look at your goals, what thoughts immediately come to mind? Is it panic or a feeling of accomplishment?

 

When I was in corporate America, one of my responsibilities was making sure annual performance evaluations were completed on time for all associates. Even though I enjoyed leading this task, it was stressful. I wanted to make sure every employee go an honest review of their performance expectations and goals.  Every year, I noticed the same pattern: people would wait until the last quarter to suddenly get serious about their goals. October through December became a frantic rush to complete what had been sitting idle for months. Sadly many goals were not accomplished because individuals waited too long to get started.

 

I used to warn employees and managers about this trend and encouraged them to use technology to track their performance all year long. end. Why? Because performance wasn’t supposed to be judged by three months of hustle — it was supposed to reflect twelve months of consistent effort. Yet, here we were, every year, watching people try to cram a year’s worth of goals into the last three months of the year. In actuality two months, because once Thanksgiving was over, goals were less likely to be completed.


It made me wonder then, and it makes me wonder now:

  • Was it fear of failure?
  • Was it fear of missing out on other things?
  • Was it simply procrastination?
  • Did they forget about the goal altogether?
  • Or maybe…it just felt too hard?


The truth is, the reasons people don’t accomplish their goals are layered. Sometimes it’s distraction. Sometimes it’s perfectionism. Sometimes it’s not having a clear enough “why.”

But here’s what I hear all the time from my clients today: They don’t just want to hit goals. They want a life of significance. They want to make a difference in the lives of others.


And yet, fear creeps in.

  • Fear of failure.
  • Fear of not being good enough.
  • Fear of missing out.
  • Fear of what others will think.

But here’s the shift: the fear that should drive us is not those things.

 The greater fear is this — not living out your purpose. 


Think about that for a second. What would it mean to get to the end of this year (or even the end of your life) and realize you never gave yourself permission to live in your purpose? That’s the kind of fear that ought to push us forward, not hold us back.

 

So as you step into October, here’s my encouragement:
Don’t look at these last three months as a cram session to check boxes. Look at them as a reset button. A chance to realign with your purpose.

Ask yourself:
👉 What fear has been stopping me?
👉 What fear should be pushing me instead?
👉 And what can I do right now — today — to finish this year with purpose, not just performance?

Because the truth is, you don’t need another New Year’s resolution or work goal to find your purpose. You just need the courage to act on it now.

 

 And if your goal is sharing your story, teaching a course, writing a book, or simply gaining clarity on your purpose — let Pearls Perfected Institute help you take that next step.

Blessings,

Dr. Janice R. Love


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