Even as I start my seventh year as a fully-fledged business owner, the pressure is on to get to a certain place. I actively resist it every day, and remind myself that I'm right on time. Where I am is developmentally appropriate.

“Professional Development” is a big umbrella. Let’s take a look underneath it in order to understand different types of learning and how they might serve you.

When I was in my early twenties, I watched a lot of my peers go to graduate school.

It mystified me because I always believed that investing time and money in an advanced degree meant knowing for sure that this right here is my specific thing, having a clear sense of direction.

I sure didn’t have that. And I didn’t know how others my age did.

More often than not, I suspected that my friends went to grad school not out of clarity of purpose but rather out of fear.

Education can enrich us—it can be a catalyst that propels us.

But it can also hold us back—it can be a place to retreat to out of fear.

Here are five types of fear that drive us to learn…