What fear is costing you as the year closes

Happy Sunday!

Sunday, 14th December 25 - 7-minute read

As the year begins to slow and the noise softens, I’ve been sitting with my coffee and a simple but uncomfortable truth:

It’s very easy to become comfortable — even while everything around us is changing.

Comfort doesn’t announce itself as a problem. It disguises itself as safety. Familiar routines. Staying competent. Staying liked. Staying where you know the rules.

And yet, as the world shifts at pace — technologically, culturally, economically — I’m seeing how many people are clinging to what was, not because it still fits, but because it feels known.

This newsletter is about letting go.
Not dramatically.
Not recklessly.
But consciously.

Because the people who truly thrive aren’t the ones who hold on the longest — they’re the ones who know when to release, adapt, and grow.

Grab your cuppa and join me in exploring the very thing we resist.

Why we cling when things are changing

When the world changes faster than our nervous systems can process, we default to the familiar.

This isn’t weakness.
It’s biology.

Certainty regulates us. Familiarity calms us. Predictability gives the illusion of control.

So we hold on to:

• old roles
• old business models
• old identities
• old versions of success

Even when they quietly restrict us.

And this is especially true for practitioners — people who are capable, trained, responsible, and used to holding things together.

We don’t fall apart.
We tighten.

What comfort cost me (and why I’m naming it)

There’s something I want to share honestly.

Over the past few years, choosing comfort kept me safe.
And it also kept me very limited.

Nothing went “wrong.”
That’s the danger.

In staying safe, I slowly lost my sense of self — and more painfully, my sense of self-worth.

I didn’t stop functioning.
I stopped fully living.

I played smaller than my capacity.
I muted parts of myself that felt too much, too visible, too risky.
And over time, that shrinking cost me presence.

Joy.
Aliveness.
The feeling of fully inhabiting my days.

Living in fear does that — quietly, efficiently, convincingly.

Because here’s the truth we don’t often say out loud:

You cannot be present and live in fear at the same time.

Fear keeps you braced, scanning, managing.
Presence requires trust, agency, and choice.

Letting go is not loss — it’s leadership

Letting go isn’t about burning things down or rejecting your past.

It’s about discernment.

It’s about recognising when something that once protected you is now restricting you.

You are allowed to evolve beyond the version of you that created your current life and business.

That’s not disloyalty.
That’s leadership.

As practitioners, this matters deeply — because we don’t just navigate change for ourselves. We model how to meet it for others.

A pause for your nervous system

Before reading on, place your feet on the floor.
Let your shoulders drop.
Take one slow breath — longer out than in.

Notice what feels heavy.

Often, what we need to let go of isn’t dramatic.
It’s simply no longer true.

What I’m choosing now

This year, I am making a clear commitment.

Not as a resolution.
As a reclamation.

I am stepping into my true value.
I am serving those I am here to serve.
And I am no longer playing small to stay safe.

For 2026, I am choosing presence, power, and passion.

Not because it’s comfortable.
But because it’s alive.

The end-of-year release audit

As we approach the close of the year, I invite you to consider this not as a planning exercise, but a releasing one.

Ask yourself — honestly, without judgement:

• What am I carrying out of habit rather than choice?
• Where am I choosing familiarity over aliveness?
• What version of myself am I still performing?
• What would change if I trusted myself more than my fear?

You don’t need all the answers.
Naming is enough to begin.

Who thrives next

The people who will thrive in the coming years are not the ones who cling hardest.

They are the ones who:

• adapt without abandoning their values
• learn without losing themselves
• use new tools without outsourcing discernment
• release identities that no longer fit

They stay rooted — without becoming rigid.

This is where conscious practitioners matter most.

Choosing Happy Podcast Update

If this reflection stirred something, these episodes may support your integration:

• Monday | Myth-Busting (10–15 mins)
  Why Comfort Isn’t the Same as Safety
• Wednesday | Real Stories (15–20 mins)
  The Moment I Stopped Playing Small
• Friday | Fail Forward (20–25 mins)
  What Fear Cost Me — and What I Chose Instead

All episodes are available at www.choosinghappypodcast.com or on your favourite podcast platform/app.

Start With AI Update — a gentle reminder

As the world evolves, remember: AI is a tool, not an authority.
Use it to free time, not replace discernment.
Support your systems — but stay sovereign in your choices.

More soon.

This week’s closing reflection

As you move toward the end of this year, ask yourself quietly:

Where am I still choosing fear — and what would become possible if I chose presence instead?

The coffee offer remains open, always.
And the welcome is genuine.

With so much love, courage, and trust in what’s emerging,

Heather

Heather V Masters
Chief Coach, Writer, Trainer and Facilitator of Magic
[email protected] | [email protected]

P.S. If you know a practitioner who feels safe but not alive, share this. Sometimes permission is all that’s needed.

P.P.S I have one 1-1 coaching space available for a woman who is quietly ready to stop punishing herself and start living the life she has left with more ease and self-respect. Message me to book a Free Quiet Clarity Call