Leadership Tools: Conquering Fear

What do you fear?

Stop for a moment and think about this: what keeps you from living your dreams?

What problem tends to dominate the average person’s life without us even noticing?

The answer: FEAR!

People live every day in fear. Fear of not delivering, of dissapointing others, of being judged, of losing wealth, fear of conflict with loved ones, fear of making the wrong decisions. We are afraid to be ourselves, afraid to grow up, afraid to make commitments. The list goes on and on.

Think for a moment. Does this apply to you? The fear of living life to the fullest may have paralyzed you. If you let it, this fear will cause you to hold yourself back in your business and in your personal life.

Most people live life in the grip of this fear without ever becoming aware that it has control over them. Fear can turn your dreams of financial freedom, loving relationships, and a fulfilling and significant life into a pattern of bad habits like procrastination and negative self-talk.

Conquering Your Fears

There are two questions you need to answer to conquer your fear.

Which fear has the most control over your behavior? (Is it the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, the fear of success, or is it all of them?)

How do I interrupt the bad habits that I have developed as a means of protection from this fear? (How do I interrupt the programming– patterns of self-sabotage, avoidance, procrastination, etc.– I have within me?

Answers to these questions will provide you the keys to overcoming your fears. If you can answer them, your life will forever change.

The reality of fear is that it is human and is a part of life. It’s not going to go away. Some fear is even healthy! It is a gift given to you to keep you safe.

Every person is born with instinctive fears, like fear of falling, fear of loud noises, and fear of abandonment. These fears help you monitor what is going on around you. Think about it: fear gives you the adrenaline rush that helps you escape a situation that is really, truly unsafe and the same rush that causes you to fight to win.

So what caused the gift of fear to be the number one problem in society today? Why do people let fear control their actions, beliefs and lives? The answer is the difference between reacting to fear and acting in fear. It has everything to do with your belief system.

Children typically react instinctively to fear, which is appropriate behavior at this age. As we age, though, we learn which sounds truly signal danger (a fire alarm, for instance) versus which are startling but harmless (a car backfiring on a nearby street). It’s important to recognize that our fear response doesn’t always mean danger.

Take that same knowledge to your fears about your business or relationships. What events trigger your fear responses? What can you do about them? Make a list of possible responses to those fearful situations and keep it where you can refer back to it easily.

Do you find you have negative thoughts that feed your fears? Things you repeat to yourself in your head? Negative statements can be like gasoline tossed on the fire of our fears. Write down those negative thoughts and then rewrite them as positive ones. Post these positive thoughts someplace you’ll be sure to see them every day.

Taking time to know and understand your fears will help you better understand yourself and bring you closer to achieving your goals. Now…go for ti! You’ve got this!

Here’s a quote that I love: