How to overcome Fear

Introduction

Fear consumes a lot of people and prevents us from starting anything. It has become so dominant that for many it is a prevalent mental health illness. Fear is a mental hold that one has in their minds that is related to an impressionable experience that has polarised the quality of their thoughts when associated situations arise. Thus, we accept the fears as core beliefs, which imitate themselves as truths and therefore lie embedded in our mind’s faculty. The fear I would like to talk about is related to the fear of taking action on a pursuit, decision or activity related to the ‘unknown’.

How Fear operates

Fear is related to a host of insecurities and or disappointments you have had, shaping how you respond to specific stimuli. It is clear that insecurities and disappointments are related to a ‘lack of’ certain attributes that can be practised or developed over time. Such attributes can be enhanced from a ‘want’ and ‘need’ to personally develop in the pursuit of wanting more from life. These wants, needs or desires are deep-rooted in your motivations generated from your core reasons and values that drive your intentions in life. Your decisions are heavily dependent upon your likes and dislikes, as well as the data you have gathered, the approach towards getting that data and how you assess it. If your decisions are fuelled by motivations that only focus on avoidance, without a specific target, then your brain is working on a survival mechanism that is not necessarily rational by nature and could be fuelled by emotion. An example could be avoiding going on dates, because of fear of rejection as an example.

The elements for Overcoming Fear

Fear can be overcome purely by one thing. Defining your definite purpose. Discovering what you desire based on your experiential makeup is what will make you more of a fearless person. Fearlessness in this context is defined as someone who still feels fear but takes action anyway. Fear never goes away but can be overcome when a focus is established, and consolidated action is taken. Finding a definite purpose is stemmed from the following:

• Defining your core values
• Learning what problem you want to solve or what you would like to learn
• Understanding the cause(s) you want to commit to

When you begin to ask questions that relate to answering these three things, you get closer to a lifestyle that is ready to take on fear. However, answering these three things is not enough to help you manage fear, rather it gives you a focus and purpose to embody. The next step is to create the environment internally and externally to help you move forward with positive and affirmative action.

Creating a Fearless Environment

Creating an environment for overcoming fear starts with making a decision. The initial decision is to commit to that very decision, and the second decision is to be aggressive when fulfilling the demands of that decision when it is made. This requires you to be honest and become a “solution-finder,” even if that means finding someone else to help solve some of your problems. Creating your environment requires you to do the following:

• Read the right books that position your thought processes
• Listen to the right podcasts, audiobooks and YouTube videos to inspire thought
• Become part of the right groups, masterminds and circles to take the right sort of action
• Having an accountability buddy to track progress weekly or bi-weekly
• Find coaches and mentors to help structure your decision making
• Attend training and workshops to polish your knowledge, skill-set and understanding

With the right attitude and with the right research, you can go a long way…

Taking action on fear

By default, all of these things you have set you up in preparation to help you take action. As said to me once before “there’s only so much preparation you can do before you actually have to take action…” I would even change that to “there’s only so much preparation you can do before you actually want to take action…” That is where we are headed. Besides, all of the stuff you did in preparation towards overcoming your fear of taking action on an idea or pursuit is action in of itself anyway! The aim is to continue to take action and not give up. The trick in doing this is to stick by these following rules:

• Don’t let your feelings make the core decisions for you
• Be absolutely clear about your goal
• Stay committed to the pursuit
• Be aggressively resilient in your endeavours
• Stay focused on the goal
• Iterate based on evidence, data, processes and strategies that diverge from the goal

If you would like to know more about how you can overcome fear with regards to a pursuit in life, read my book Understand Reach Expand: 15 Super Effective ways to Manage your Mind.

Enjoy your day!