The Safety Dial: Why You Grow at the Speed You Feel Safe

I heard an interesting snippet while listening to a podcast recently.

Something along the lines of “you manifest at the speed you feel safe”.

If you’re not into the “woo” and think manifesting is a pile of the proverbial, then let’s substitute the word “grow” because I think the same logic applies.

You grow at the speed you feel safe.

It makes sense, and I see it play out with clients. Successful entrepreneurs with proven track records become paralysed when they enter the next-level arena. They have the skills, resources and opportunity, but something holds them back and slows them down.

That something is their internal safety dial.

The market or your competition doesn’t limit your business growth. It’s limited by how safe you feel taking the next step.

And you have complete control over that dial.

In this article, I’ll show you how your safety dial works, why it’s keeping you stuck and how to adjust it so you can grow at the speed of your choosing.

The Safety Trap That’s Killing Your Growth

Sarah (all my clients are called Sarah 😉) runs two successful businesses, and she is working on creating a new one. She’s been thinking about launching it for a year, and she’s done the market research, has proof of concept and a list of potential interested clients.

But she noticed she kept finding reasons to delay.
I need to build the curriculum first.
Maybe I should wait till I have more testimonials.
I’m not clear enough on my messaging yet.

Sound familiar?

Sarah is far from lazy and knows what she’s doing, AND she’s caught up in her need to feel “safe” before acting. The irony? The confidence and security she’s seeking will come after she does the thing she’s avoiding.

I coach corporate executives and business owners, and see this pattern shows up everywhere in business:

The CEO who delays making a crucial hire because they're not 100% certain about the candidate (and they’ve been burnt before), meanwhile, their team burns out from being understaffed or wastes time doing work they’re not qualified to do.

The entrepreneur who spends months perfecting their website instead of talking to customers, because launching something they’re not sure of feels too risky.

The business owner who avoids raising their prices despite being booked solid, because they're terrified of losing clients.

In each case, the desire for safety is actually creating the very risk they're trying to avoid. The understaffed team creates operational risk. The over-engineered website delays revenue. The underpriced services create financial instability.

The safety trap works like this: your brain interprets uncertainty as danger. When you're contemplating something new - launching a product, entering a new market, making a big hire - your nervous system activates the same threat response our ancestors used to avoid being eaten by tigers.

Except there are no tigers. There's just the unknown.

Your brain doesn't distinguish between physical danger and psychological uncertainty. Both trigger the same fight-flight-freeze response that kept your ancestors alive, but now keeps your business small.

The result? You either avoid growth opportunities entirely (flight), attack them with overwhelming analysis and preparation (fight), or get stuck in endless planning mode (freeze).

What if you don't have to be a victim of this response? What if you could adjust how safe you feel about uncertainty?

Understanding Your Safety Dial
Your sense of safety isn't determined by objective reality - it's determined by the story you tell yourself about that reality.

Think of it like a dial on your internal dashboard. When the dial is set to "high safety needed," every new opportunity feels like a threat. When it's set to "comfortable with uncertainty," the same opportunities feel like adventures.

The fascinating part? You're the one controlling the dial, even if you're not aware of it.

Here's how it works: Your brain is constantly scanning for information to determine how safe you should feel. But it doesn't gather this information objectively. Instead, it looks for evidence that supports whatever you're already focused on.

Focus on what could go wrong → Your brain finds endless evidence of potential threats → Safety dial cranks up → You feel paralysed.

Focus on what could work and how you'll handle challenges → Your brain finds evidence of opportunities and solutions → Safety dial dials down → You feel motivated to act.

Let me give you a concrete example. Two entrepreneurs are considering launching the same type of online course:

Entrepreneur A is focused on thoughts like:
• What if no one buys it?
• My competitors have more experience.
• I don't know if I can handle the technical side.
• People might think I'm not qualified.

Entrepreneur B is focused on thoughts like:
• I have a unique perspective that could help people.
• Even if only 10 people buy it, that's 10 lives improved.
• I can learn the technical stuff or hire someone to help.
• The people who criticise aren't my ideal customers anyway.

Same situation. Same level of objective risk. Completely different safety dial settings.

Entrepreneur A's brain is gathering evidence that this venture is dangerous. Their nervous system responds accordingly, making it nearly impossible to take action.

Entrepreneur B's brain is gathering evidence that this venture is manageable and worthwhile. Their nervous system stays calm, allowing them to move forward with clarity and confidence.

The difference isn't that Entrepreneur B is inherently more confident or capable. The difference is that they've learned to direct their focus in a way that serves their goals instead of sabotaging them.

This is what I mean when I say you control your safety dial. You may not control external circumstances, but you absolutely control what you pay attention to and how you interpret what you see.

There are many strategies you can use to adjust your safety dial, but let’s start with one.

The Manageable Worst-Case

Most people try and avoid thinking about worst-case scenarios, which actually makes them more frightening. My clients terrorise themselves with the possibility of what can go wrong, but the conversation stops there. They never come up with a plan for what would happen next, and that’s the strategy you’re going to start using now.

You're going to look directly at your worst fears and create a plan for handling them.

How it works: Write down your worst-case scenario, then ask: "If this happened, what would I do? How would I handle it? What resources do I have? Who could help me?"

Example: You want to launch a podcast, but you're terrified it will fail publicly.

Worst-case scenario: "Nobody listens, I get criticised online, and I look foolish to my network."

Management plan: "If nobody listens, I'll focus on improving the content and reaching out to my network personally.

If I get criticised, I'll remember that criticism means people are paying attention, and I'll use constructive feedback to improve.

If I look foolish, I'll remind myself that everyone who's ever accomplished anything has looked foolish at some point."

This exercise doesn’t eliminate the risk, but it makes the risk feel manageable so it’s easier to take action.

Create Real Change by Putting It Into Action:

• Choose one significant business decision you've been avoiding
• Write out your worst-case scenario in detail
• Create a comprehensive management plan for handling that scenario
• Notice how creating the plan affects your anxiety level

Remember: the goal isn't to eliminate uncertainty or become fearless. The goal is to become comfortable enough with uncertainty that it doesn't prevent you from growing.

Your Safety Dial Is Your Growth Accelerator
The entrepreneur who waits to feel safe will be waiting forever. Safety is not a prerequisite for growth - it's a byproduct of growth.

Every successful business owner has learned to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

They've learned to adjust their safety dial based on their goals rather than their fears. They've learned that the confidence they seek is on the other side of the action they're avoiding.

Your business will grow at exactly the speed you feel safe to grow it. The question isn't whether you'll face uncertainty - uncertainty is the price of admission to entrepreneurship.

You have a choice every single day: dial up the safety and stay small, or dial down the safety and grow fast.

You get to decide.

What's one growth move you've been avoiding because it doesn't feel "safe enough"? What would change in your business if you adjusted your focus and took that step this week?