5 steps to deal with fear

Definition

Fear means to run or take flight. It is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat.

Fears - rational or not so rational

In doing the research for this story, I realized that people have quite a few fears – some rational and some not so rational. From the fear of heights to the fear of lizards - or according to my 2-year-old daughter "Baby dinosaurs". There is also a school of thought that says all fears are irrational; the very nature of fear renders it so.

Be that as it may, there are fundamental similarities among all forms of fears. And in this story, I am choosing to focus on the kind of fear that stops us from achieving the will for our lives.

When/Where

We tend to feel afraid of:

• situations where there appears to be no clear answer;
• new and/or difficult situations; or
• situations that will require us to change.

Why

Fear is used to try and control us and to stop us from doing what we know we were put here on this earth to do. Therefore, we can expect that if we make a decision to go after our dreams or if we are making any kind of upward progress, we will be confronted by fear.

Think back to one such occasion in your own life when you were making some good progress and then fear reared its ugly head, leaving you crippled and doubting whether you should go on. Guess what? That was no coincidence.

Standing ground

When we are faced with such situations, we must stand our grounds and keep it moving. It was Einstein who said,

“insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

So, to get different results, we are going to have to start doing things differently.

Try to fear not because your creator is with you. You will get the help that you need. You will be strengthened.

This does not mean that we will never have feelings of fear, but that we should keep on keeping on in spite of these negative feelings. We must take action knowing that we have the strongest support that we will ever need.

How

The sooner we accept that the feelings of fear will never go away in our lives, the better. No matter how successful or experienced we get, the feelings will still come.

We can feel afraid and still not be afraid. Instead, we can use these negative emotions as a catalyst to propel us towards our dreams, goals, and aspirations of a more abundant spiritual and financial life. We must act in spite of the fear.

Step 1

Get still and get out of our heads. Our minds are telling us that we suck big time – we must not listen!

Step 2

Check-in with our hearts. Be still and ask what should we do.

Step 3

Be even stiller and listen keenly for an answer. It is that still small voice that we have been ignoring all this time.

Step 4

Go forward with confidence and take consistent actions. It will be hard, but we must not give up. We must press through. We all deserve all that life has promised! In the words of Nike – Just do it! I will add - keep doing it. Adjusting as needed as we go along.

Step 5

As we make progress, tell ourselves that “I will not fear”. Say it out loud as many times as needed. We believe what we tell ourselves more than what others tell us.