This is an excerpt from “Lean Into the Hard Work”, a chapter in my forthcoming book.

Some projects worth doing require physically difficult work, or long tiring hours of mentally demanding work. I admire people who embrace those kinds of work when they’re needed.

There’s another kind of hard work that scares more people than those two, I think. Emotionally difficult work stops a lot of people who are undaunted by a long day of exertion.

A songwriter putting her vulnerable heart into her music is doing emotionally difficult work. A scientist who dares to believe the groundbreaking solution can be found, doesn’t know how yet, and still shows up to the lab every day, is doing emotionally difficult work. The leader who takes responsibility and personally promotes a vision for the organization is doing emotionally difficult work.

Fear is an invisible filter that screens out many smart and talented people. I imagine a bold red line painted in front of us all, stretching as far to the left and to the right as we can see. This side of the line is crowded, and it feels safer. The other side is sparsely populated. It feels conspicuous and dangerous.

When an entrepreneur moves from talking about a new business, to starting that new business, she steps over the red line. The crowd on the safe side gasps, shrinks back a little from the line, and a rumble of envious comments drifts through them. “Look what she’s doing. I couldn’t do that. I wonder if she’ll make it, or fall flat.”

The line has no guards, no fence, no barbed wire making it hard to cross. There’s no requirement to be smarter, better looking, or wealthier in order to cross it. It’s just red paint on the ground. The few who cross it often reap big rewards, and see the futures they intended for their lives unfold in exciting ways. Back on the safe side people point, envy, analyze, even say it’s unfair. But that powerless red line keeps them safely, invisibly, restrained.

Give yourself an advantage. Cross the line.