Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. – Marie Curie
Fears are Perfect Opportunities for Growth…
Our fears are debilitating things that rob us of our energy, our dreams and our opportunity for redemption. They are very much like rubber bands flinging us back and forth into our comfort zones the moment we try and expand the possibilities.
Our fears are indeed horrible figments of our imaginations, much like dreams — seemingly real, yet completely fictional occurrences taking shape within the recesses of our minds.
- Is there a way to overcome their magnetic pool?
- Is there a way to escape their disillusionment, and the heartbreaking consequences that stop our lives in their tracks?
- Or are we simply doomed to a life of what ifs and maybes?
Before these questions can be answered, we must first come to a realization that our fears are actually blessings in disguise that not only help us to better understand our tendencies and motives, but also assist us with discovering new paths and opportunities that will help us to achieve our goals and objectives.
Our discussion today will pinpoint some of the key concepts and ideas that we must all become aware of when it comes to understanding and overcoming our fears.
First, we will define what fear actually is, we will look at the different types of fear that can paralyze us, and the potential consequences and impact that these fears can have on our lives.
Secondly, we will briefly look at the evolution of our fears extending from childhood and into adulthood.
Thirdly, we will identify some key fear conquering tactics that will help you to better manage, and potentially overcome self-sabotaging patterns. And finally, we will finish off our discussion by taking a look at how you can develop the mindset of courage to help you move past your fears and into the realm of unlimited opportunity and possibilities.
For more information about overcoming fear, please read how to eliminate fear and download the accompanying mind map free.
Identifying Your Self-Sabotaging Fears
The reason why our fears have a tendency to become overwhelming and confronting has to do with a simple lack of understanding.
Whatever we fail to understand, we also fail to acknowledge and therefore fail to comprehend the damage and impact that such behaviors can have on our physical reality.
Our fears can in many instances be very subtle in their approach and influence on our lives. Some fears we might mistake as minor inconveniences that we don’t want any part of, while other fears can be a little more noticeable and may lead to long-term future consequences that we never considered or imagined were possible.
Within this section, we will discuss these aspects by firstly providing you with a clear and potentially eye-opening definition of fear. Secondly, we will look at the potential consequences of our fears and the impact they can have on our lives and patterns of behavior. And finally, we will identify the major and minor fears that you must be aware of, and the associating behaviors that will help you to examine these fears from a new angle and perspective.
The Creative Definition of Fear
Fear is can be creatively defined as False Evidence Appearing Real.
Our fears are in fact irrational beliefs that we have about ourselves, our actions, objects, other people or events. These fears only appear to be real within the recesses of our minds, however, they have absolutely no basis in reality. They are in some respects made-up interpretations that we make about things within the physical world.
Explain why one person is afraid of spiders while another person confidently handles them in the palm of their hand. Is it the spider that gives life to this fear? Or is it instead an interpretation that is made within the mind of the individual who sees the spider? The same could be said of other fears.
The fear of public speaking is thought to be more prevalent in our society than the fear of death itself. When it comes to public speaking, it is the interpretation that a person makes about the action or event, that determines the emotional reactions that they experience.
Fear is nothing more than the uncertainty we feel about the outcomes, circumstances and about the unpredictability of future events. We don’t want to touch the spider because of the uncertainty that it might actually bite us. We don’t want to stand up on a stage and speak in front of people because we are uncertain of people’s reactions and judgments.
Yes indeed, our fears are nothing more than a False Evidence Appearing Real.
The Consequences of Our Fears
Our fears are not simply isolated events that have no impact on our current reality and future circumstances. In fact, they may indeed have a significantly larger and more influential impact on our lives then we give them credit for. Just think about it, and consider the following points the next time your fears get the better of you:
Breeds Resistance
Your fears create a magnetic pull of resistance that pulls you away from opportunities and back into your comfort zone where safety and survival is of primary concern.
The moment you resist doing something because of an irrational fear is the exact moment that you are allowing opportunities to pass you by.
These opportunities can come in the form of objects, events, people or even the personal growth that you experience as you work through your fears.
Breeds Insecurity
Every time that you give into your fears, you are at that very moment breeding the habit of insecurity, which can literally eat you alive from the inside out.
Insecurity is basically a lack of confidence that one feels about one’s abilities. Insecurity is, in fact, a precursor to depression and it is triggered as a result of not being able to deal with our fears in rational and proactive ways.
When you are feeling insecure your life comes to a halt and you begin second-guessing every decision. This likewise slows you down and leads to many other destructive emotional outcroppings.
Breeds Destructive Behaviors
Fears naturally breed destructive behaviors that sabotage us from moving forward with our lives in proactive ways.
Destructive behaviors can be in the form of habits of laziness, procrastination, doubting ourselves, purposefully neglecting our responsibilities, etc. These behaviors are only prevalent in our lives because of the fears that we allow to dwell within our hearts.
Work your way to overcome your fears, and you will find your destructive behaviors begin to fade away.
Stifles Motivation
Motivation is an essential component as we move along our journey’s towards attaining life and business success.
Our fears rob us of our motivations because they blockade our lives with an insurmountable amount of irrational obstacles that just seem too difficult and overwhelming to deal with.
Our motivation is stifled each and every time we come across one of these blockades, and over time we naturally condition ourselves with the belief that hope is futile and that life will always be there to put us back into our place.
Stifles Emotional and Intellectual Growth
In order to grow and develop ourselves emotionally and intellectually, we need to move beyond our comfort zones and into the world of new experiences. If however, our fears are dictating our daily actions and decisions, then hesitancy will dominate our behavior and will result in half-hearted actions that always pull us back into our comfort zone.
Life is designed as a progressive tool that challenges and teaches us lessons that will assist to further our intellectual and emotional growth. Without new experiences we cannot grow, without growth we cannot make progress, and without progress, life is futile and emotionally draining.
Stifles Effective Decision Making
Because our fears are irrational interpretations we make about our physical reality, they naturally stifle our decision-making abilities. It’s much like driving a car with foggy windows. Yes, we know where we’re going, however, we have to slow down to a crawl because we fear that we might hit something accidentally.
If our fears overwhelm us completely, then we will simply pull the car over and stop. However, as we remove our fears from our experience, the foggy windows become clear, allowing us to see further distances, to travel at faster speeds, and to make better and more calculated decisions based on the clearer perspective we have of our journey ahead.
Stifles the Development of Key Skills
Did you know that your fears may indeed be holding you back from developing a key set of skills that may very well hold the seeds that will help you to attain your most sought after goals and objectives?
We develop skills through a process of experience that is pulled along by a gauntlet of ongoing obstacles, challenges, and problems that we must successfully deal with.
If your fears are overwhelming your decisions and actions, then you may indeed be pulling yourself away from prime opportunities that will allow you to develop new talents and abilities that could one day assist you with attaining your goals and objectives.
Types of Fears
There are many irrational fears that we might experience throughout our lives. The purpose of this section isn’t to identify every possible fear that may sabotage your progress towards the achievement of your goals, but instead to identify three key fears that naturally give birth to a myriad of other self-sabotaging fears that can stifle your progress.
Fear of Rejection
The fear of rejection in its most basic form is a fear of people.
We go through life constantly seeking to please others in ways that will bring pleasure and happiness into our lives.
If a situation presents itself that seems uncertain, then the fear of rejection will overwhelm us and lead to inaction.
People who suffer from the fear of rejection naturally seek more out of life, however, because they are people pleasers they will refrain from making decisions or taking actions that might cause other people to deny them the things that they want.
The fear of rejection is intrinsically a natural outcropping of the fear of failure.
Fear of Failure
People who experience a fear of failure go through life worrying about making mistakes, about hurting other people, and about being judged for their actions and decisions.
You can identify when someone is suffering from a fear of failure by taking a look at their emotions and actions. A person riddled with this fear is often quick to anger and rebellious in nature. They also seek perfectionism and always try to do whatever it takes to over-please the people in their lives.
Fear of Success
The fear of success is possibly the most prevalent goal-oriented fear within our society today.
For most people, it is difficult to understand how someone could actually fear to achieve success. The truth is that we get so comfortable with our current life experience that stepping outside of this reality brings a great deal of uncertainty and unpredictability that naturally stifles our decisions and actions.
People who suffer from a fear of success have a tendency to procrastinate, to be riddled with the habit of disorganization, and seem to be gifted with a natural lack of productivity. These behaviors are essentially self-sabotaging tools that we use at an unconscious level to lay down the foundations for roadblocks along our journey towards our goals.
Of course consciously, we would like to achieve these objectives, however subconsciously we are afraid of success and therefore sabotage our own progress by laying down a myriad of obstacles, problems and other creative objects along our path that manifest in the form of excuses. Yes, it all sounds silly, but it is all very true.
Minor Fears
The above three fears will often give birth to the minor fears of inadequacy, change, commitment, confrontation, responsibility, and losing control. Each of these minor fears are powerful self-sabotaging forces that we need to learn to overcome.
There is a myriad of tools and strategies that you can use to overcome these specific fears, however, we will leave them for another time.
The Origins and Evolution of Fear
The second step on the road towards overcoming your fears comes down to accepting and understanding the process of how your fears evolved.
Within this section, we will first discuss how the seeds of fear are planted in early childhood by the good intentioned behaviors of our parents, siblings, role models, and through simple observations and self-learning. Finally, we will travel forward in time and identify how fears continue to evolve, expand and strengthen as we move through our adult lives.
Manifestation of Childhood Fears
As children, we are very susceptible to the behaviors of other people and the circumstances that unfold within our environment.
Because children have a very limited experience of the world, they naturally take on board everything that is thrown their way without questioning the events or circumstances. They are very much like wet clay that can be molded into shape very easily. Since their belief systems are very weak, they will naturally take on board pretty much anything that anyone tells them without a second thought. Weak belief systems are somewhat a blessing and a self-sabotaging force that could cripple them with emotional problems for the rest of their life.
Fears are natural outcroppings of a child’s beliefs that they have allowed to dwell within their minds for extended periods of time.
Let’s now take a look at some ways that fears and beliefs are created at this early age. As you are reading through this, reflect back on your own childhood experiences and identify whether any of these factors lead to your current fears or self-limiting belief systems.
Parents Using Negative Language
As parents, we sometimes take for granted the language we use to communicate with our kids.
The purpose of our negative language is to communicate our displeasure in a way that will help our children to better understand the dangers or inappropriateness of their behaviors. Our goal is to protect them and to keep them safe from the realities of the outside world. This is all well and good, however, we must also take into consideration that every time we are communicating with our kids, that we are at that very moment programming them with behaviors, habits, and decisions that could very well stay with them for the remainder of their lives.
Each and every time you say “No!… Don’t… You Can’t…” to your kids, you are at that specific moment encouraging them to link negative emotions to the events, people, behaviors or circumstances under question.
Simple words like these might not seem like a big deal, although repeating these words over time with varying levels of emotional intensity, can indeed cause your kids to fear certain events, objects or circumstances that may seem rational at the moment, however they may, in fact, be quite counterproductive on an emotional level when they reach adulthood.
Instead, we must learn methods and strategies on how to get our message across to our kids in a way that will reduce resistance and allow for natural growth without fear or remorse.
Parents Threatening or Scolding
This extends from the unproductive language we use to help teach our children important life lessons. However, threatening or scolding is also tinged with high levels of negative emotion that has a deeper and more profound impact on a child’s psychology.
Again, we must take care not to emotionally overreact to events or circumstances, as these behaviors may psychologically scar our children in ways that we weren’t expecting. We must also keep in mind that as adults, it is difficult to question our behaviors if their origins are rooted in emotional childhood experiences that we fail to recognize.
Parents Frightening Child
As parents, sometimes we fail to understand how simple and seemingly insignificant events can leave a lasting emotional impression on a child’s mind.
Thinking back to my childhood days, I always frightened my little baby sister with spiders. For me, it was just another form of entertainment — seeing my sister screaming and running away from a little innocent spider. I didn’t realize at the time, that these little events created a lasting emotional impression on her mind that triggered an unnatural fear of spiders within her body for years to come.
My sister is now a young woman and has successfully managed to overcome her fear of spiders to the point that she is cautious yet not afraid to be in their presence.
Child Living through Other People’s Fears
Another trap that children fall into, is getting too emotionally involved in other people’s life experiences and fears.
As children, we are very susceptible to the influence of the adults within our lives. As such, it is easy to understand how a child can become completely absorbed within the emotional fears of another person.
As parents, we must be constantly vigilant and aware of the behaviors, fears, and emotions that we are directly or indirectly projecting onto our children. Our fears and emotional inadequacies must always be controlled and hidden. If this is not possible then we must help our children understand the reality of these emotions from an intellectual and rational perspective. They must realize that all emotions and fears have no basis in reality and that they are primarily based on personal irrational perspectives we hold about ourselves, the world and others — helping us to feel psychologically safe and secure.
Negative Emotional Experiences Causing Pain and Rejection
Fears can manifest when children experience negative emotional events that lead to the feeling of pain or the experience of rejection.
Emotional pain can lead to massive long-term psychological scarring that is difficult to heal and deal with. These events manifest in unexpected ways.
In many instances, it is not so much what happens to the child, but rather how a parent helps the child move through the emotional event that has the biggest and most profound impact on the child’s psychology.
Fear can also spring from feelings of rejection that a child experiences at a young age. In such instances, it is always important to let your child know that they are deeply loved and needed and that they should not allow a single event to dictate how they will approach the rest of their lives.
Manifestation of Adult Fears
The vast majority of our fears naturally evolve throughout our childhood years. As adults, we basically live through the consequences of these fears in unresourceful ways that bring continued pain and misery into our lives. As adults, we also make mistakes by partaking in habits and behaviors that tend to support the fears that evolved throughout our childhood years.
Survival Mechanism Against Pain and Rejection
In a similar way to our childhood years, as adults, we also have a tendency to naturally manifest irrational fears based on the experience of pain and rejection within our lives. When these events occur we must immediately rationally approach the situation from an intellectual rather than from an emotional perspective.
A Simple Lack of Knowledge
Many of our adult fears are simply manifested through a lack of knowledge that we have about people, events, objects, circumstances or even about ourselves. In fact, in many instances, it is this lack of knowledge that keeps us in constant emotional turmoil. Little do we realize that a little understanding and awareness could help us pull through these challenges in miraculous ways.
Unresourceful Self-Questioning Strategies
As children, we are very open to the possibilities of questions that could help us to find effective solutions to the challenges that we face. On the other hand, as adults, our questioning strategies somehow deteriorate into a self-sabotaging language that leads to unresourceful emotions and a growing array of self-imposed fears.
Every time we question our strengths, abilities, intelligence, and skills, we build upon the layers of references that keep our fears alive and constant within our lives.
If you seek to overcome your fears successfully, then you must begin by transforming how you ask questions and setting your life on track.
Proven Fear Conquering Tactics
For many of us, overcoming our fears seems like an unconquerable mountain that will never be climbed. However, in many instances, this isn’t too far off from the truth. Because based on our limited perspective of the possibilities, our fears indeed cannot be conquered.
If we are an inexperienced climber wanting to climb Mount Everest, we will simply fail to understand the necessary steps that we need to take and the equipment that we must use in order to get ourselves successfully up to the mountain. When it comes to our fears, the process isn’t so much different.
The strategies and tactics within this section will not only provide you with the steps you will need to climb to the very summit of the mountain, they will also introduce you to the equipment you must use to get you there safely and in good time.
The Process of Questioning Your Fears
As previously discussed, our questions are the keys that will open new possibilities and understandings that will further help you to overcome your fears in a rational and proactive way.
Your first step is to validate your fears. The second step is to come to understand your fears. The third step involves determining the consequences of your fears. And the final step helps you to plan ahead in a rational and proactive manner that will help you to overcome your fears.
Validate Your Fears
You have no hope in the world of ever effectively dealing with something if you don’t first acknowledge that it exists within your reality. This is where the validation step comes into the picture. You must validate the existence of your fears (even though they are just irrational projections of your mind) in a way that will throw a little doubt and uncertainty your way.
Here are a couple of questions that you should be asking yourself:
Is this fear justifiable?
Does this fear actually make any sense?
Understand Your Fears
The next step is to learn to understand your fears at a deeper and more profound level, which can be accomplished by moving back through time in order to gain a realization of how your fears came into existence.
Determining the origin of your fears is important as it will provide you with a psychological strength and certainty that there is, in fact, a reason and meaning behind every behavior, habit, decision and action that you make within your life. Certainty will likewise provide you with a sense of confidence that will further strengthen your resolve and move you forward in the right direction to help you overcome the roadblocks and setbacks in your life.
Here are a couple of questions you should be asking yourself at this stage:
Why does this fear have a hold over me?
How did I originally come to fear this?
Determine the Consequences of Your Fears
In order to successfully overcome your fears, you will need to gain some leverage. Leverage is effectively gained when you utilize the principles of pain and pleasure successfully.
For the purpose of this questioning process, you must first and foremost identify the potential losses that will come to the surface if you continue to hold onto this fear, while on the other hand acknowledging the potential gains that you are likely to achieve if you successfully overcome this fear in a rational and proactive way.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What am I likely to lose if I continue to hold onto this fear?
What am I likely to gain if I manage to successfully overcome this fear?
Plan Ahead
The final step of this questioning process involves planning ahead for possible scenarios that could unfold as you make progress beyond this fear. A little foresight will go a long way towards setting you on the right track and helping you to overcome your fears in a rational and proactive way.
This process involves looking ahead in time, identifying and strategically contemplating how you will deal with this fear under the blanket of different scenarios and perspectives. Essentially this involves a four-pronged attack. You must effectively determine how you will deal with your fear from an emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental perspective.
Here are a couple of questions to get you started and thinking along the right path:
How will I deal with this fear emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally in the future?
What’s the worst that could possibly happen? How will I effectively deal with this scenario?
Gaining Knowledge and Building Your References
As previously discussed, it’s often our lack of knowledge and understanding about an emotion, situation or person that leads to the manifestation of fear in the first place. Therefore, in order to overcome this, we must look at effective resources and tools we could potentially use in order to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the events and circumstances that are causing the fear we experience within our lives.
Seek Knowledge
The first place to begin is to seek out new knowledge and experiences that will help you to gather a wider perspective and understanding about the fears that are currently holding you back in life. Books, blogs, and movies are great places to start. For instance, reading biographies of people who overcame your fears successfully will provide you with confidence and assurance that you too can also successfully move through your fears in quick succession.
Reading blogs that share effective strategies on how to overcome your fears will provide you with the tools you need to keep you moving forward.
Watching inspirational movies about people who have overcome great and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, may provide you with the confidence you need to press forward and move beyond your fears.
Build on Your Imagination
Did you know that your unconscious brain does not know the difference between imagination and reality?
You can use this to your advantage by simply imagining yourself overcoming your fears successfully over and over again within your imagination. While doing this, make sure to utilize all your sensory emotions in order to vividly make the experience feel as real as possible.
Repeating this process will help to build your knowledge and reference-base in ways that will further assist you to move past your fears.
Seek Other People’s Experiences
Join support groups or simply seek the experience of other people in order to build upon your knowledge bank of understanding about the fears that are currently confronting your reality.
You may find that by talking through your experiences with others that you will reach new conclusions while uncovering potential solutions that may help you to move past your fears. You may also gain some unique insights from other people’s experiences, strategies, techniques, and tactics that they used to overcome their own personal fears.
Help Others Overcome their Fears
One of the best and most overlooked methods for overcoming your fears is simply helping another person to overcome the fears that are prevalent in their lives.
It is amazing how the simple act of helping another person to overcome their fears can lead to potentially life-transforming insights that will likewise better prepare you for your own personal life challenges.
Simple Strategies for Overcoming Fear
Here are some simple fear conquering strategies that you can use immediately to help you move through the roadblocks that are holding you back in life.
Take Small Consistent Steps
Fears are often overwhelming emotional experiences because we perceive them as being these extraordinary large objects that are completely in control of our lives.
In order to deal with your fears effectively, you must first and foremost begin with small steps. Simply do something small each and every day that will help you to build on your levels of knowledge, confidence, and proficiency in relation to the fear that you are seeking to overcome.
Cultivate Belief and Faith
Did you know that your fears are built upon the foundations of belief and faith?
If you are currently suffering from an irrational fear, then come to realize that it only has a hold over your life because you believe in it, and have unintentional faith in its existence.
Instead of building upon the fear, why don’t you twist your belief and faith in the opposite direction and cultivate confidence in yourself and your abilities that you can successfully overcome this fear in a rational and proactive way?
Face Your Fears
There are many personal development gurus out there who simply say that you must just decide to face and confront your fears head-on. There is no doubt that for some relatively manageable fears this process can indeed work very well. However, you must first get your fears to a manageable state before undertaking this step.
If for instance you try and confront your fears head-on too early, then the shock of the confrontation may do you more harm than good.
Your mind is an emotional web of thoughts that become quite irrational when confronted with things that it just doesn’t understand. Therefore, in order to avoid this pitfall, make sure to build enough supporting references, tools, resources, skills, and knowledge that will help you to better manage your fears before you take the plunge and confront them head-on.
No matter what you choose to do, sooner or later you will have to confront your fears. However, please be careful not to fall into the habit of procrastination.
Simply Relax
Take classes, read books and simply learn to teach yourself how to relax, how to find calmness and peace within your body and mind. Learn to shut-off and direct your mind and body inwards when you sense a fear is about to overwhelm you.
Turn Off Excuses and Sabotaging Thoughts
We must also learn to redirect our thoughts and subdue our irrational excuses that naturally breed and expand on our fears.
Did you know that your thoughts are things that direct your emotions and patterns of behavior?
Within each of your thoughts lie endless possibilities that can either trigger powerful and empowering emotions, or likewise stimulate irrational and deflating emotional habits that will sabotage every decision you make and action you take. In fact, you cannot experience the emotion of fear without first having a thought about it. Yes, it is your thoughts that trigger your irrational fears of behavior.
Simply take time to shut down your thoughts or redirect them away from your fears and unto aspects of your life that bring great pleasure, confidence, and certainty.
On top of this, it is also important to shut off the constant excuses that roam freely within the recesses of our minds. Excuses only breed more excuses and help fears to sprout ugly flowers and weeds that clog our brains with a greater array of irrational thoughts and objections.
Laugh at Your Fears
Break yourself out of your self-sabotaging patterns of by having a bit of a laugh. 🙂 Yes, actually take the time to laugh at your silly and irrational fears that have absolutely no basis in reality. In fact, go ahead and ask other people to laugh with you. I am sure there is something really quite amusing about your fears that you hadn’t noticed before.
Laughter is a great form of therapy that could very well provide you with the leverage you need to help you overcome your fears.
Developing the Mindset of Courage
Our fears are only as powerful as the depth of our courage and the size of our hearts.
Via the process of learning to cultivate courage, we can achieve many seemingly impossible feats that may have felt out of reach and somewhat disjointed.
Courage can introduce us to a world of unimaginable possibilities and unexpected learnings that strengthen our resolve and move us into action despite any contradictory feelings that might be languishing within our hearts.
Yes, courage is the answer, and it is the key that will open many doors of opportunity while moving you through seemingly impossible obstacles that are standing in your way.
Within this section, we will discuss and identify the key habits and characteristics of courage and the mindset that will seemingly brush your fears away.
Definition of Courage
Many of us probably see courage as being something that has no fear. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. A courageous person is actually someone who takes action despite the fear that is burning within their hearts. These are the people who become the heroes of our lives, and they are the role models that will help us build a lifetime of unforgettable experiences, minus the regrets.
Changing Your Perspective
A courageous person doesn’t just simply accept reality. Instead, they transform their perspective about themselves, others and circumstances in ways that will further their cause and help them overcome their fears.
Perspective about Self
They transform their perspective about their potential, abilities, skills, and strengths in ways that will help them to soar to new heights of achievement.
Perspective about Others
They transform their perspective about other people in ways that will help to further their cause as they move through the fears and obstacles that are standing in their way.
Perspective about Circumstances
They transform their perspective about circumstances in order to help them identify the seeds of opportunity hidden within the problems and fears that are currently confronting their reality.
Courageous Habits
A Courageous person has a set of distinguishable habits that help them to successfully move through their fears and into a world of unlimited opportunities and potential.
Taking Risks
They are natural risk takers. They constantly scour their environment for opportunities that will further their success and help them to move through the obstacles that are currently confronting their reality.
Learning from Mistakes
They realize that it is only through the process of continuous and never-ending learning that they will be able to successfully manage their fears in ways that will further their continued success and progress through life.
Seeking New Experiences
They enjoy seeking new experiences, fully understanding that it is only through these new experiences that they will be able to find the opportunities, resources, learnings, and courage to help them move through their fear-ridden obstacles in quick succession.
Accepting Complete Responsibility
They completely and wholeheartedly accept full responsibility for their behaviors, decisions, and actions no matter what results or outcomes they experience in their reality.
With full responsibility comes the acknowledgment that excuses are the precursors to fear and lead to the formation of many obstacles along one’s path. Knowing this, a courageous person will never dwell on, never complain, or make excuses that could potentially reignite their fears in uncontrollable ways.
Courageous Characteristics
A courageous person has a set of distinguishable characteristics that help them to successfully move through their fears and into a world of unlimited opportunities and potential.
Faith
They cultivate faith. With faith comes belief, and with belief comes a sense of confidence that helps them to move beyond the obstacles that are standing in their way.
Patience
They cultivate patience. With patience comes rational thinking, which likewise encourages better and more proactive decision-making, helping them to break through the fear-ridden obstacles standing in their way.
Ambition
They are wildly ambitious people whose dreams have no limitations. They strive for seemingly insurmountable goals that keep them on their toes and moving forward each and every day of their lives. To achieve these goals they must muster the courage of 100 men moving in unison towards one destination.
Commitment
They either fully commit to their objectives or they direct their attention to another destination.
Commitment is necessary as it helps them to move through their fear-driven obstacles with a greater sense of determination and persistence that keeps them going despite naysayers.
Self-Belief
A courageous person cultivates an unshakable belief in four key areas.
First, they cultivate an unshakable belief in their own ability. They wholeheartedly believe that they will achieve their goals and objectives despite their seemingly irrational fears.
Secondly, they cultivate an unshakable belief in attaining a positive outcome. Instead of focusing on their fears, they constantly have their eye on obtaining a positive outcome that is as clear as day within the recesses of their mind.
Thirdly, they cultivate an unshakable belief in finding hidden opportunities around every corner. They understand that their fears will throw a myriad of obstacles in their way. However, they also realize that within every obstacle there lies a seed of hidden opportunity that they can take advantage of to move them forward along their journey towards attaining their goals and objectives.
Finally, they cultivate an unshakable belief in a higher power that is working for their betterment at all times.
Visit Brian Tracy’s website to learn more about his personal development, business courses, books, and programs.
Concluding Thoughts
A simple lack of understanding leads most people down the path of fear and insecurity. These types of habits and behaviors keep people within a state of weakness and disillusionment that prevent them from making the necessary decisions and taking the required actions that will help them to attain their most sought after goals and objectives. Some people use this lack of understanding as an excuse for not being able to successfully overcome their fears. Having fully read this article post, I imagine that you are no longer one of these people.
Time to Assimilate these Concepts
Did you gain value from this article? Is it important that you know and understand this topic? Would you like to optimize how you think about this topic? Would you like a method for applying these ideas to your life?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then I’m confident you will gain tremendous value from using the accompanying IQ Matrix for coaching or self-coaching purposes. This mind map provides you with a quick visual overview of the article you just read. The branches, interlinking ideas, and images model how the brain thinks and processes information. It’s kind of like implanting a thought into your brain – an upgrade of sorts that optimizes how you think about these concepts and ideas. 🙂
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Gain More Knowledge…
Here are some additional links and resources that will help you learn more about this topic:
- A Guide to Beating the Fears that are Holding You Back @ Zen Habits
- 4 Mental Tricks to Conquer Fear @ Inc.
- 3 Ways to Overcome Fear Immediately @ Entrepreneur
- 5 Steps to Overcome Fear and Meet Your Goals @ Tiny Buddha
- 5 Life-Changing Keys to Overcoming Your Fear @ Positivity Blog
- Reconditioning the Brain to Overcome Fear @ Science Daily
- 6 Steps to Deflate Self Defeating Fears @ Think Simple Now
- Overcome Fear of Failure @ Pick the Brain
- The George Costanza Lifehack for Overcoming Fear & Anxiety @ Lifehack
- 5 Great Ways to Conquer Your Fears @ Zen Habits
- Overcoming Fear in the Economic Crisis @ Think Simple Now
