Understanding and Overcoming Your Fears to Achieve Success
When was the last time you had a lot of ideas and an urge to take Action? It’s in our body by nature; we must decide which comes into our brain with the question mark.
Daily, we have to make almost a thousand daily decisions, ranging from simple choices like What we should wear to meet up with friends or what we should eat for breakfast to even more complex decisions related to work, relationships, and personal goals.
Fun fact, humans got much information to digest and make decisions from one to another in one day. Research has shown that the average adult makes around 35,000 conscious decisions daily. That includes both small and large decisions. What to wear, what to eat, what tasks to prioritise at work, and so on. What factor will interrupt us during our decision-making?
When making a decision for our life, what stops or even drags our leg to moving forward is the uncertainty that we can’t foresee, which is the unknown.
A feeling of anxiety makes us feel an unpleasant emotion concerning the outcome of something, whether it’s good or bad. For example, imagine ourselves walking in a beautiful city for the first time, and it’s a whole new experience we have never had before.
We don’t even know where to go. But yes, we know it’s a beautiful city, and we will have the feeling of wanting to explore the beautiful scenery, having the sense of unsure or even uncertain, the emotion in our mind that plays the role it’s what I have known as Fear.
Fear of missing the way in the city,
Fear of having a different culture or language,
Fear of exploring the new map in life.
Fear will block you. Fear will protect you
So why is Fear so prominent in our life?
Because our minds had trained to protect us.
Fear serves as a protector of the soul and will always be there when we are unconscious of the decision. It protects us from danger when we have an unpleasant emotion and eventually triggers this feeling of being afraid. This feeling of afraid limit the ability to engage in new experience and opportunities.
Fear is the inner monster that will devour us if we keep letting it come our way when we are excited to explore a new experience that we never had.
But Fear isn’t a bad thing because it protects you. When we are fearful, it covers us from anything dangerous.
It is up to us to notice when our fears are not protecting us but instead pulling us down.
For the ideas that we sincerely want to achieve or feel meaningful, we must develop a relationship with Fear and knowing which one we are doing helps us the best. Turning the Fear from protection to motivation is a switch in mind, and start taking Action.
Ideas are worth nothing without execution, implementation and Action.
Most people don’t struggle with ideas. Instead, they work with Action, implementing what is in their mind and executing to get the result.
People who leave the rest behind are not necessarily the best. They are just the best at taking Action. We must break through the Fear, the insecurity, and the limits we put on ourselves. It’s not about having the perfect scene. It’s loving what we do every day and enjoying the process.
How to Overcome Fear and Take Action?
To stop this process, we shall build a relationship with Fear, understand Fear and overcome Fear.
Define a goal, and define what scares you about it.
“When we have a thought that keeps coming back into our lives, don’t escape or run. Instead, practice this, don’t see Fear coming from ourselves. See it as another person.
When you have an emotion, imagine it as a separate person. Say to ourselves to define what is the Fear:
I have a relationship with the Fear of …….”
Take The Time To Understand Your Fears
Define your Fears.
Fears is a family member that we haven’t bothered to understand.
Personally, this is my Fear.
- Height.
- Failure
- Judgement
And the list continues
Take Action
Once you have defined your fears, you can then develop your goals. The process:
Define a Goal.
I aim to take time and travel with my family and loved ones. Therefore, I am working to provide my family stability financially while simultaneously enjoying travelling the world.
Ask myself: What scares me about my goal. Keep writing what genuinely scares me about this goal.
But what scares me about my goal?
Do I have enough financial support to allow me to do that?
The amount was too enormous to achieve or even think of.
I have to save every cent without sacrificing the living standard, which I don’t want to compromise.
The Fear that stops me from moving forward is my financial stability. I’m afraid to move back to Malaysia, where I have not lived there for almost 13 years working and studying overseas. As a result, I may not be able to enjoy the life I live at the current moment.
Break down your Fear and then ask yourself
- Is the Fear of not having enough finances actually in my ideal world?
- Am I adding too much financial burden to my shoulder, making me even more scared about losing something?
- I’m afraid to face failure in business or even find someone to work on it together who knows each other well.
- I fear I could fail the expectation of someone who looks up to me or rely on me.
What steps do I need TO DO to overcome this Fear?
I have to save up enough emergency funds for at least six months of salary to make myself feel financially stable. I need to trust myself. I am capable of running a business with my experience.
I can overcome this by taking the first Action and expecting failure in what may come to expect the worst rather than the best. With that, I am open to walking into the unknown zone and taking that as an inspiration or motivation rather than being afraid to improve myself.
Conclusion
We need to take time to understand ourselves, change our perspective of Fear, and press the fear switch button from protection to motivation.
Accept and embrace it to grant us the drive to be better and bravely explore the unknown. Treat fear emotion as a family member by truly understanding it to overcome it by taking Action.
Explore the unknown / Face Your Fear = Take Action.
Take your time to be alone in a place where you feel very comfortable.
Then, use pens & paper or even a phone notebook to write a journal of your chapter.
Define what your Fear is.
Write as long as you want. The more precise, the better.
Define a goal.
What is a goal you are Fear of, something you want to achieve as a goal this year?
Ask yourself what scares you about your goal.
What scares or makes you not dare to dream about your goal? Be genuine to yourself to understand yourself.
Break down your Fear and ask yourself
Imagine you were reading it out in your inner voice as a 3rd person and feeling it.
What steps do I need “TO DO” to overcome this Fear?
By defining your Fear, the end is the Action. What you need “TO DO” to overcome this Fear helps you see what you should do to improve and be the better version of yourself.
