Are you experiencing fear? Do you have difficulty facing fear? Is fear holding you back from achieving everything you want? Are you stuck because you fear moving forward?
I know that it has been said repeatedly to the point of being a cliché, and here I go saying it, we live in unprecedented times. There I said it.
We live in unprecedented and uncertain times and the theme of fear has been coming up in my personal life as well as in my conversations with my coaching clients and my friends. Has fear been presenting for you? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it probably has.
What exactly is fear? Fear, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a loss of courage. Fear is our body’s natural response when we don’t feel safe to motivate us to find safety.
Types of Fear
There are countless types of fear including the fear of the unknown, fear of flying, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of snakes, or fear of getting sick to name a few.
The problem with fear is when it moves from providing safety to immobilizing us from making goals, achieving our goals, or moving forward in our lives. Our lives are a never-ending pursuit of self-improvement.
Fear has a way of convincing us that we don’t need to achieve, or if we want to make a change and achieve more, it may be too scary or risky. I find that it is easier for many people to give into the fear and not make a change in life rather than taking the risk or making the change. So often we hear the expression, “the devil known is better than the devil unknown” meaning why make a change? It may not be great where you are but at least you know where you are, and it may not be so good with the “unknown devil.” In my opinion, this is just fear talking, and you should take the calculated risk.
Tips For Facing Fear
Our creator, God, higher power, whatever you choose to believe, laid out a path for each of us to achieve greatness and be our best selves. As we are journeying down our paths, we encounter fear. What we need to do is fight off fear and keep moving along our path to greatness.
Here are some tips for facing fear:
- Get out of your comfort zone and do something uncomfortable.
- Take a risk, but make sure it is a researched and calculated risk.
- Engage in self-talk and tell yourself that you aren’t going to engage in the fear.
- Set an intention and see it through even if fear shows up.
- Overpower fear and don’t allow fear to overpower you.
The thing about fear is the more that you do things that you deem fearful, the more you reduce your fear. It’s like building a muscle, the more bicep curls you do, the stronger your biceps muscles will be. The more you take actions to combat fear, the less fearful you will be.
Can You Actually Live Without Fear?
While it may seem nice to think that we could live without fear, fear may be a bit of a good thing. Fear can be motivating. Finding the line between fear being motivating and debilitating is the key.
We want to have enough fear to stop us from doing something stupid or dangerous, but we don’t want to have too much fear that we don’t move forward in our lives.
These unprecedented and uncertain times have caused us a lot of fear and may have even stopped us from living our purpose. It is hard to want to move forward when we don’t know when the next shoe will drop. When we stop moving forward, we stop living.
Don’t allow the pandemic, news media, social media, family, friends, and fear keep you from living the life that you were destined to live.
If you are having problems achieving your goals or feel that fear is debilitating you from moving forward, let’s talk and figure out why fear is keeping you from living your best life. Contact me by sending an email or a DM.
