Rewire Fear or Repeat It

I thought about this as I was hiking on a well-maintained trail this weekend. It takes work to make a good path.

Have you ever walked across a college campus and noticed those weird sidewalks that don’t quite make sense?

They zigzag through patches of grass, follow strange curves, or seem to dead-end at nothing.

If you look closely, you’ll notice something brilliant:
Those sidewalks didn’t come first.
The students did.

Over time, students cut across the grass where they naturally walked. Step after step, they wore down new paths… ignoring the original walkways someone else designed. Eventually, the landscaping crews must have given in and paved the paths the students were already using.

Because repetition matters. It creates paths. And eventually, the paths become the road.

This F-Bomb #10 is about the ruts you are creating when it comes to fear. Each day, you’re either strengthening a resilience path or reinforcing a fear path.

Your Brain Works the Same Way

Every time you respond to fear by freezing, avoiding, overthinking, or powering through without feeling…
You’re carving a path.

Step by step. Thought by thought. Reaction by reaction.
And the more you walk that path, the more automatic it becomes.

That’s not mindset fluff - it’s neuroscience.

It’s called neuroplasticity: the brain's ability to reshape itself around what you do repeatedly.

Fear doesn’t just visit us.
It builds routes through us.

Insight Isn’t Enough. You Have to Walk a New Way.

You can read every leadership book, attend every webinar, memorize every affirmation, and still fall into the same fear-loop when the pressure’s on.

Because rewiring fear doesn’t happen with awareness.
It happens with action.

You have to do something different - on purpose - to create a new mental path:

• Step out of the safe routine

• Respond with calm instead of urgency

• Choose presence over perfection

• Move forward instead of overthinking

And here’s the truth: if you don’t consciously rewire your response to fear, your brain will default to the old path.
Every time.

Repeat Fear… or Rewrite It

In life and leadership, unaddressed fear becomes a pattern.
A stuck loop.
A missed opportunity.

And in teams? Fear unspoken becomes culture.

You’ll see burnout disguised as productivity.
Avoidance framed as focus.
Tension masked as “drive.”

It doesn’t have to be that way.
But change starts with a new step.

Final Thought: What Are You Paving?

So ask yourself, what am I doing each day to help or hurt my brain’s response to fear? It’s your brain. It’s your responsibility to take care of it.

You’re either wiring in resilience… or reinforcing fear.
One action at a time.

The question is:
Are you ready to do things differently? Or will you keep walking the same worn path?

Because the road you walk now becomes the sidewalk you’ll follow in the future.  

Final Thought: What Are You Paving?

So ask yourself, honestly:
What am I doing each day to help or hurt my brain’s response to fear?
Because every reaction, every shortcut, every stress-driven sprint… It's either reinforcing fear or rewiring resilience.

Hey reader - It’s your brain. It’s your nervous system. And it’s your responsibility to shape how you show up in this world.

We are always training our brains

Your Fear Response Is Trainable. But it doesn’t rewire from knowing—it rewires from doing.
Through small, deliberate reps:

✅ Catch yourself when your jaw clenches, your shoulders rise, your breath shortens.
✅ Take a moment to pause, ground yourself, and breathe deep into your belly.
✅ Reframe the fear—name it for what it is: a signal, not a stop sign.
✅ Speak the truth out loud: “This is fear. I don’t have to follow it.”
✅ Choose a different next move: take the call, have the conversation, hit send.
✅ Celebrate that tiny win. Because you just taught your brain a new way.

Now What?

If you’ve read all 10 articles in this F-Bomb series, you’ve seen how fear hides:
In control.
In comparison.
In urgency.
In doubt.
In delay.

You’ve seen how it affects your health, your happiness, and your success.

So my new friend… what will you do with that insight?

Will you keep walking the same worn-down trail of stress, hesitation, and white-knuckled effort?

Or will you pave something new—something grounded, bold, and resilient?

No more blaming stress.
No more defaulting to “busy.”
No more calling fear by another name: “urgency,” “ambition,” “just being thorough.”

Fear has been running the show long enough.

You don’t need a full reinvention.
You just need a series of brave, intentional steps in a better direction.

Because the sidewalk you walk today becomes the path you're on tomorrow.

Start here. Start now.

• Pick one moment today when fear usually wins.

• Choose to respond differently.

• Repeat that action tomorrow. Then the next day.

Because this is the work.
This is how you rewire fear.
Not in theory. In practice. Step by step.
Thought by thought.
Decision by decision.

With every new step, you’re not just building a different future -
You’re becoming someone who’s ready for the future – no matter what it brings!

Choose the path that leads to calm, clarity, and control.
Choose the path of resilience.

You Got This!