How to Overcome Fear: The World's Biggest Demotivator

“So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key.”
“Already Gone” by The Eagles

Fear is the world’s biggest de-motivator.  All of us have suffered with the paralysis that fear brings. I am not talking about the healthy fear that keeps us from physical harm. I am talking about the irrational fear that keeps us from doing the things that we know we should.  This fear keeps people in the same dead-end jobs, in the same unfulfilling relationships, in the same unhealthy financial state.  We are afraid of being rejected, unloved, unwanted, hated, outcast, laughed at, etc.  Everyone has these fears. We all want to be accepted and praised for who we are and what we do. We allow irrational fear to keep us from making decisions because we are afraid that the consequences will be too painful to bear. As a result, we do nothing.  We are paralyzed in our irrational fear. When we are in this state of emotional paralysis, we cannot be effective in our relationships or our careers. We simply cannot give to others and contribute to society because our emotional “well” has gone dry.

Ask yourself right now: what am I afraid of doing? What is holding me back at this moment? What have I been putting on the “back burner” and why? Who do I need to call? Who do I need to connect with? Who needs my emotional support?  What tasks have I been dreading? It is worth the introspection. If you are to conquer fear, you have to identify what feeds it and why you are holding yourself back. When you do this, you might just surprise yourself. Upon analysis you will probably see that the outcome of the thing that you fear is not quite as bad as you perceive it to be.  Most fear is irrational and built-up in our minds to such a point that it causes us not to act.

HOW TO OVERCOME DE-MOTIVATIONAL FEAR:  

-Get out a piece of paper and write down 3 things that you are putting off because of fear.

-List the worst possible outcome OF TAKING ACTION with the items on the list.

-List the worst possible outcome FOR NOT TAKING ACTION with the items on the list.

-Armed with the knowledge of the worst possible outcomes: Take action on the 3 items.

Do it now. Do it today. You not only will feel better emotionally, but also will have set yourself in the path of better decision making. Life won’t simply happen to you anymore, YOU will control your destiny.

(photo: by Chris Breeze, Creative Commons License,Some rights reserved)

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