Posts from — December 2008

Part 2 – Overcoming your Fears

Part 1 of this post highlighted the 7 Deadly Fears that stop us from living our dreams.
If you are under attack by one of these fears, how would you know?  How would you know that you are in fear?

Due to the stealthy nature of these fears, you would probably not feel or even sense any physical changes that would indicate the presence of fear.  It is only when we are in heightened states of fear that we get the sweaty palms, the beating heart and the physical symptoms of fear.    The only way to catch these fears and to detect their lurking is to recognize that you are NOT TAKING ACTION. If you are not taking action in line with your dreams and goals, then you are in FEAR.

NOT TAKING ACTION = FEAR

In fact PROCRASTINATION is just a nice long word for fear!

There is an exercise for fear that thousands of people, who have attended my workshops, now use to step through their fears and into action.

The first step is to become aware that you are in fear.  If you have read part 1 of this post, the signs of fear will be more apparent.    When you are doing all those trivial little bits and pieces so that you avoid making that important phone call – then you are in fear.   When you go to fridge and spend an hour baking a cake and then eating it, so that you don’t have time to write that proposal – then you are fear.  If you go out partying with your friends or sit and watch three hours of meaningless television instead of doing the paper work required to form a new company – then you are in fear.   Lethargy, distraction, procrastination and busy-ness are all great cover-ups for fear.

Once you are aware that you are not taking action then you go down the list of fears to determine which fear it is that is prevalent and is preventing you from moving forward.

Once you have determined the fear that is creating the inertia (and it may be a combination of two or three of these fears).  Then you do the written exercise below

What action am I not taking?

What is the underlying fear(s)?

If I take this action

What is the best thing that can happen?

What is the worst thing that can happen?

You must do this as a written exercise.  If you try to do it in your mind instead of writing it all down, the fear inside your head, will try to rationalise and persuade you that the fear is perfectly justifiable.   Once you have done it as a written exercise you will notice that the worst thing that can happen is never as bad as the fear that you feel and often the worst thing that can happen is the current status quo.

Do you have any tips for overcoming fear – please share them with us, so that we can all learn from each other and can conquer our fears.

Overcome your fears, get into ACTION and start living your dreams.  You know you can do it – jump over your fear and DO IT NOW!