Fear. How do you overcome fear? We’re going to be talking about tips on how to face your fear, not run from fear, but to face that fear and grow as a result of it. Fear is a natural response. You want to have that fear mechanism in place for the right reasons. Unfortunately, what happens is this fear comes at times in our lives when we’re nervous or anxious in situations that probably don’t warrant that amount of fear, and it freezes us, and it stops us; or it makes us run and avoid something that, is it really something that warrants that type of response?
We can’t eliminate it, but we can manage this fear. I’m going to talk about two things today in terms of relating to fear. Fear of failure is big and fear of the unknown. We say we want something different, but we’ve become so attached to the familiar of what we know now that we fear the unknown.
In the unknown, in the realm of possibility is where what we want exists. We don’t know what it looks like. We don’t know how it’s going to transpire. But so many of us, because of the fear of what’s on the other side, we won’t take action. We won’t move, or we’ll run the other direction.
We know that we want more than what we currently have in our lives, and so we have to embrace that unknown, not run from the unknown, and realize that where we are now is enough of pain, enough of dissatisfaction to say, “You know what, I’m going to take a chance on the possibility in the unknown.”
And that fear of failure, that fear of, “Gosh, if I fail,” it’s really just a fear of failure is it’s a blow to your own ego. So we really have to get past ourselves because when we fail, we can always get back up. This fear of failure, both of these things, fear of failure and the fear of the unknown, they stunt our growth, they stunt our potential. It’s like weeds in a yard. They’re just killing things, and it’s stopping your ability to be able to grow to the individual that you need to be to accomplish the things that you want and to live the life that you desire.
Danger is real. Danger is real, but fear is a choice. How we respond to things is a choice. And most things in our lives that we are fearful of are not dangerous. They’re not putting our health at risk. They’re not putting our family at risk.
Let’s talk about these five tips that you can begin to apply to your life so that you can face fear head-on, and get past it; and pass that fear is the growth, the person you want to be, the goals that you want to accomplish, and the life that you want to live.
1. Become Aware
So the first thing we got to do when it comes to fear is you have to become aware of when these fears come to you. Once you become aware, once you start to identify and recognize those situations where you become fearful, well, that’s the first step because you can identify those situations. Now the goal here is not to run or avoid that situation, it’s to say, “Okay, I’m in this situation. What do I do now?”
2.Manage The Monster
The next step is, now you’ve got to manage the monster. What I mean by that is, so often these fears, we’ve turned it into these big monsters when it’s really nothing. It’s all in our own brain, what this fear of happening is.
So once you become aware, the next thing you do is you say, “What is it really specifically that I’m afraid of?”
Then the other thing you think about as you manage this monster is you say, “You know what, no matter what happens, no matter what happens here,” and this is huge, you say, “I’m still awesome,” right? This is where you have control, and when you realize you have control over your thoughts here … This is huge … You have control here to manage this monster and really kind of squash this monster down.
3. Embrace Improvement And Growth
You have to embrace improvement and growth. You have to know that you can get better and that even if you fail here, it’s okay. But with repetition and over time, you can get better.
4. You Got To Jump
And then the fourth thing that you have to do is you got to jump. So many people will have paralysis by over-analysis, and they’ll think about what they’re thinking about, what they’re thinking about so much that they won’t take action; and that fear of the unknown, that fear of failure just literally paralyzes them and stops them. Just do it. Just jump. Because you see, every time you jump, and you just do it, even if you may not have the outcome that you wanted, every time you overcome yourself with that fear of failure or that fear of the unknown, every time you overcome that, you win. Every time you overcome that, you win.
5. Jump Again
And then the fifth thing that you got to do do it again. Jump again, jump again. See, every time you overcome yourself, you win. And you then will begin to get comfortable at getting uncomfortable.
So now you can begin to apply this, this thought process to your life because you’ve dealt with it in other areas of your life and you can begin to apply it there. Remember, danger is real, but fear is a choice. Once you can exercise your ability to choose, you can manage the monster of fear. At that point, you’re in control of your life. You can control what’s going to happen whenever these fears come, and you have a decision to make. Am I going to let this fear come in and just wreak havoc on my life or I’m not going to identify it, be aware of it? Manage it. Embrace future growth and improvement. Jump and then jump again.
