Overcoming Fear

Fear is without doubt among the strongest and most influential emotional responses we have, and it may act as both a protective and destructive force depending upon the situation.

Obviously, fear may help us avoid dangerous situations, triggering the fight or flight reaction when we feel threatened. Regrettably, this same reaction may also be triggered when no true threat exists. We merely find ourselves feeling overwhelmed and anxious even if we know logically that no injury will come to us.

For many of us, not overcoming fear may become a serious hindrance in our lives, preventing us from getting a better job, meeting eligible life mates, seeking medical aid or even, in severe cases, venturing outside our houses. Fear is one the basic reasons that we as individuals hold back on living the life of our dreams.

Even if we really wish to produce better conditions, we still might struggle with an overwhelming fear of failure, so we refuse to take risks as this might lead to some unpleasant results. In such cases, the perils of failure appear to outweigh the advantages of success, so we hold back and do nothing.

This fear of success may be an great hindrance on your road to the success you are seeking. It can cause you to feel stressed and overwhelmed with all the extra duties and responsibilities that would come with greater success. You might fear not being able to handle those responsibilities, or worry that you would feel pressurised to keep attaining the same level of success in the future. These fears in themselves are enough to cause individuals to sabotage their own efforts, even when they sincerely wish to become more successful.

Either way, fear is strong enough to paralyze most of us – whether the things we fear are true or imagined.

If you've ever held back on a goal or avoided taking action that would lead to a favourable outcome, you might have been fearful that you may fail. Fear of failure may be subtle because our brains can come up with endless excuses why it‘s not a great time to take a risk right now, or how the odds don‘t appear to be in our favour, etc..

It‘s difficult to believe that anybody may be afraid of success (isn‘t success usually a good thing?) but it‘s far more common than you might believe. Most often it‘s not the success itself that individuals fear, but rather all of the duties and uncertainties that come along with success.

Fear of rejection is commonly related to low self-esteem, but might show up in subtle ways. You might attack others when a possible rejection is imminent; sabotage relationships so you may be the one who rejects the other individual rather than them rejecting you; or you might merely withdraw from social interaction to avoid the possibility of becoming rejected at all.

You might prevent making changes necessary to improve your life; you may settle for a dissatisfying job that pays less cash than you're capable of bringing in; or continuously sabotaging your goals. If you don‘t trust in yourself and believe that you deserve to have a better life, you will never produce the changes that you need.

So overcoming fear is vital to your future success and well-being.

Many of us have a set of unequaled fears that relate to our own lives, like concerns about family, financial worries and so on; but there are also a lot of universal fears – or maybe you might call them collective fears – that are communicated to us through our surroundings.

These fears frequently relate to places and events that leave us feeling vulnerable and defenseless, like worldwide 'pandemics' (...and 'vaccines'), 'terrorist' attacks, economic and financial crises, etc. We are always seeing constant references to these awful scenarios in the media and from the individuals around us.

However, you can minimize the effect they have on your life.

Cultivating Courage

One of the positive techniques for overcoming fear is to actively work at cultivating courage.

If you had more courage, maybe you could ask for that raise you've been waiting for, feel more confident in closing that next sale, or even invite the girl of your dreams to go out on a date! The possibilities are endless!

But what is courage, really? Courage is the ability to continue moving forward even in the face of challenge, adversity and fear.

Without fear, there could be no bravery. So being courageous is largely about managing and overcoming fear as best you can and still taking the best action available to you.

Courage Is Like A Psychological Muscle.

Being brave is similar to lifting weights. The more you participate, the easier it becomes. Alternatively, the more you're willing to use and accept fear as an excuse not to move forward, the easier that path becomes. You become good at the things you practice regularly.

To cultivate courage:

• Start out by making a list of the things that you're afraid to do but wish you weren't. These can be things like asking out the cute guy in the finance department, doing karaoke, starting your own business, or leaving a bad relationship.
• Now put that list in order from least fearful to most fearful.
• Begin at the top and work your way down.

These strategies will help you develop the courage to tackle your list and move on to even bigger things:

1. Decide that you're going to conquer your fears. The simple act of making a decision means you've cut yourself off from all other possibilities. So declare to yourself that you're going to tackle your fears one at a time.
2. Accept the fact that there will be some fear. Fear can frequently be decreased, but sometimes not completely eliminated. Remember that living courageously means dealing with some level of fear but going forward anyway.
3. Develop the idea that fear isn't a good excuse to avoid doing something. Unless you're going to fall off a cliff, being afraid is an ineffective way of choosing your course of action.
• As mentioned above, if you get into the habit of not acting due to fear, continuing on that path only becomes easier.
• Try to start basing your decisions on what you'd like to have in your life, rather than on what you don't want (the fear).
4. Ask yourself, "What's the worst that can happen?" Many times your knee-jerk reaction is to feel fear in a given situation, but you might find out the worst that can happen isn't that bad.
5. Reward yourself. After you complete one of your list items, give yourself a treat. Be proud of yourself; you certainly earned it!
6. Recognize that feelings of fear and excitement are very closely related. Is a rollercoaster exciting or scary? It's a thin line for most people. Horror movies are a similar experience. The difference between excitement and terror can be difficult to ascertain.
• Try telling yourself you're just really excited the next time you take action to do something on your list.
7. Use every tool at your disposal to minimize your fear and have faith in yourself. All kinds of things can help in overcoming fear! Here are some suggestions:
   • Faith
   • Meditation
   • Hypnosis
   • Therapy
   • Practicing your values and principles
   • Prayer

You can live courageously. Put the above plan into action today. The key is to start small and move forward from there. Remember that being courageous is all about taking action in spite of fear, not the absence of fear. There's no time like the present to cultivate your courage and overcoming fear.