How To Overcome Fear and Release Your Potentials

      

At the beginning of each new year a great number people opt for making resolutions to change for the better. Of those who succeed in making resolutions many end up failing. But many even fail before they give success a chance because of fear. Some are afraid of failure, others are afraid of success. Regardless of the source of the fear, it cripples many people and prevents them from achieving what their dreamt goals.

There is no more direct way to failure than to failure to try. This year, don’t allow fear kill your hustle before you even get moving. Here are 14 ways to overcome fear and make sure this year  nothing holds you back.

1.  Understand fear and embrace it Fear exists to keep us safe. It is not inherently bad or good ,but it is a tool we can use to make better decisions. Fear isn’t designed to keep us inactive, but to allow us act in ways that generate the results we need and want. Embrace fear as instruction and let it guide your actions, but not control them.

2.  Don’t just do something, stand there! We tend to admire people who are quick to action, but being deliberate, initiating a plan, and pacing yourself are also actions. Many promising undertakings have been threatened or ruined by haste alone. When fear strikes consider whether the correct action could be to analyze the options and make a wise, well thought out choice rather than jumping to what looks right at the very moment.

3.  Name the fear. Sometimes simply stating what your fear is,can give you the strength to deal with it. Say your fear out loud, write it down, or focus your mind on it. "When you try to ignore your fear, it grows. When you face it, it shrinks."says Josh Steimle a renowned Psychologyst.

4.  Think long term. If you’re an entrepreneur, you may be afraid you couldn’t make the next payroll. But what’s your three month outlook, or the outlook for the next three years from now? Thinking about the long term won’t fix your short term problem, but it can allow you think about it more objectively,with less pressure ,and come up with the right solution.

5. Educate yourself. We are afraid of nothing more than the unknown. If your fear is based on a lack of information, then get the information or knowledge you need to deliberate on the situation based on facts rather than speculation.

6.  Prepare, practice, role play. The long standing top fear in the United States is speaking in public. In many surveys,for some people,standing in front of a group and opening mouth is worse than death. If your fear is attributed to your performance in a certain activity, then prepare, practice, and role play. Carmine Gallo, author of Talk Like TED, said about Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor who practiced her popular TED talk (over 18 million views and counting) more than 200 times. If you don’t have that much time, Gallo explains :“I find that practicing a presentation a minimum of 10 times is ideal

7. Utilize peer pressure. Have you ever done something scary, such as jumping off a high bridge into a river below, only because you were with friends who were pushing you on? Peer pressure, like fear itself, can be positive or negative depending on how it’s used. Surround yourself with people who will push you to overcome the fears that are keeping you from achieving what you want.

                

8. Visualize success. Athletes might imagine the successful completion of a physical task thousands of times before achieving it. This mental mapping ensures that when the body moves, it’s more likely to follow its pre-ordained way. The same practice  can prepare you to succeed at whatever you’re trying to achieve.

9. Gain a sense of proportion. How big a deal, really, is the thing you’re afraid of? We sometimes get so blinded in the success or failure of a particular quest that we lose sense of where it fits in with everything else we value. Ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen? Sometimes the reality is bad, but often you might find that the fear itself is worse than whatever it is you’re afraid could happen.

10. Get help. Whatever you’re afraid of, is it something you can only do alone? Can you find a mentor or support group to assist you through it? Athletes have coaches. Students have teachers. Sometimes friends, even if they have no expertise in the area you’re struggling with, may provide the needed support to face your fear.

11. Follow others, find a recipe. Are you doing something that has never been done, or can you follow the footsteps of someone else who has achieved it before? Is there a formula for success? Has someone written a book on the topic, or can you tweak a formula from another field to suit your needs?

12. Have a positive attitude. In Brian Tracy’s book The Power of Self-Confidence: Become Unstoppable, Irresistible, and Unafraid in Every Area of Your Life he asks “What would you do differently if you were absolutely guaranteed of success in any undertaking?” could you try more things? Could you keep working long after others would have given up? People who have positive attitudes are successful for the fact that they keep trying after others have given up.

13. Be willing to pivot. As the saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” But there’s another saying: “Insane mind is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If you’re afraid to do something again because it didn’t work out the last time, find out why it didn’t work, and try something different before you give up trying altogether.

14. Focus on others as your motivation. There are things we would never do for ourselves,but which we would quickly and fearlessly do for others. Hyrum Smith, the co-founder of FranklinCovey, once asked a mother in his audience during a presentation if she could be willing to cross a standard metal placed from the roof of one skyscraper to another. She answered no, she wouldn’t. He asked her if she could do it for a million dollars, and added that now there was a bit of wind and some raindrops falling. She still couldn’t. Then he told her to imagine he was holding her child over the edge of the opposite building, and if she can’t there in 10 seconds he would let the child drop. What do you think would be her answer  under those circumstances? Your guess is as good as mine. 

Fear therefore,can be conquered and your potentials freed if only your mind allows it to happen. Take control over it.