It’s easy to pretend fear isn’t influencing you and to make excuses as to why you haven’t achieved what you’re capable of. Instead of turning around and hiding from it, treat fear as a cue to take action, not an excuse. Look at your goal. If you let fear chase you away from achieving it, then you’ve effectively given in.
Conquering fear means harnessing the fear response and using it to your advantage. Learning how to conquer fear begins with finding your center.
1. IDENTIFY YOUR FEARS
Learning how to overcome fear is much like any problem-solving challenge in that you must identify the challenge in order to overcome it. What is it you’re afraid of? Sit quietly for a few minutes and observe your thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. Write down what comes up, and be as specific as you can.
2. RECOGNIZE THAT FEAR CAN WORK TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Our emotions exist to tell us things. When you feel fear, your soul wants to tell you something – so listen. If you feel overcome by stress or distracted by a subtle-but-persistent anxiety, it’s likely a subconscious fear that needs your attention. Rather than avoiding it, overcoming fear requires leaning into your anxiety. View the fear as a piece of information instead of a threat to your survival. When you use anxiety to your advantage, it can’t ruin your life. In overcoming fear, it becomes your ally – a critical source of guidance to reach your full potential.
3.RECOGNIZE THE EXCUSES
Fear makes you put things off. “I’m really tired. I have other stuff to do. It’s a dumb idea anyway.” These excuses probably sound familiar, don’t they? You’ve probably said this out loud and to yourself. Think about it. Is there any truth to these statements, or are you constructing excuses to avoid potential failure? It’s much easier and less painful to make excuses than it is to put in the long hours and energy it will take to work toward your goal, but excuses and opting out will ultimately leave you feeling unfulfilled. If you want to find out how to conquer fear, you need to take a different, proactive approach.
4. SIT WITH YOUR FEAR
There are times for action and times for reflection. Acting too quickly to overcome your fear can lead to behaviors that do more harm than good, like reaching for a drink, indulging in comfort food or even repressing the feeling entirely. Next time you feel fearful, do nothing. Sit with your fear for a few minutes. Think about it. What is the root cause? Is it fear of uncertainty? Fear of failure? What is the story you tell yourself about why you can’t overcome this fear? A moment of reflection can have a great effect on overcoming fear in a way that is productive, deliberate and effective.
5. CREATE GOALS THAT ARE “MUSTS”
Oftentimes the process of overcoming fear becomes stymied by uninspiring or elusive goals we set for ourselves. To turn this around, ask yourself: What does the life you desire and deserve look like? Is it just a “someday, maybe” plan or do you actively work toward it? Is it something that is attainable and you’re willing to commit to? The first step in overcoming fear is identifying whether or not you’re creating a compelling goal. If you accomplish this, will you feel fulfilled? Conversely, if you don’t accomplish this, will you be lost?
Dig deeper into your goal. What is your ideal outcome? Is it financial growth – more money in the bank? Maybe you want the financial independence to travel anytime, anywhere? Consider what your life will look like if you don’t achieve this outcome and compare it to what your life will look like if you do. Once you feel that your goal is essential, the fear of not making an effort eclipses the fear of failure – that’s when you’ll be inspired to act.
6. ADOPT A GROWTH MINDSET
When you’re afraid, you tend to stay in one place. What if you make a mistake? What if you fail? You start to believe you can’t progress at all, that you’re incapable of it – the fear holds you back. One of the most powerful tips to overcome fear and anxiety is to adopt a growth mindset. It’s not about achieving your goals and being perfect every step of the way. No one is ever perfect all the time, so stop striving for that. It’s about getting comfortable with what you don’t know and continuing anyway – this is the foundation of a growth mindset, but i recommend is grow the billionaire mindset. Learning from the others is the best ways.
7. VISUALIZE YOUR GOALS
You’ve done the mental work: identifying the real reasons you’re holding yourself back and determining your must-haves in life. But overcoming fear requires that you practice these habits daily so they will lead to true action.
Tony says, “Identify your problems, but give your power and energy to solutions.” Goal visualization is one of these solutions. It’s used by some of the most successful athletes, actors and entrepreneurs, like Michael Phelps, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will Smith and women’s soccer star Carli Lloyd, among others.
8. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SUCCESS
Tony says that “Proximity is power.” This is also known as the law of attraction, or the idea that, in essence, you become the people you surround yourself with. Tony puts it another way: “Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life.” If you’ve turned your “shoulds” into “musts” and recognized all your excuses but still aren’t sure how to overcome fear and put your goals into action, it’s time to examine your focus.
9. FIND VALUABLE INSIGHT IN PAIN
No one likes pain. Most of us go to great lengths to avoid it. But pain is a profound teacher. If you accept that your life and your efforts to achieve your goals will be painful at times, painful experiences become opportunities for growth. When you let go of pain as a threat to your survival, it loses its power and becomes another tool for overcoming fear.
Everyone experiences hardships in life. It doesn’t matter whether your setbacks are personal or professional – what matters are the lessons you take from those experiences and how you apply them to your future. Instead of letting a fear of uncertainty due to your past experiences dictate your decisions, actively choose to learn from those painful moments to be in control of your own life.
10. ACCEPT THAT YOU’LL FAIL
What’s the number one fear people have when it comes to accomplishing their goals? That they’ll fail. But like pain, failure can teach us. In fact, failure is often a better teacher than success. If you accept from the onset that failure is an inevitable part of success, you’ll be less afraid of it. Failure can provide you with valuable learning experiences that will positively impact your future strategies.
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