What are YOU afraid of?
Do you have a fear of public
speaking? Of meeting with prospects? Of your boss? Do you have a fear of
failure or if risk?
Many of these are common fears that people face every day. What can you do about them, and how can you get past them and move forward despite them?
Here are 3 simply steps to overcome fear in any situation with ease.
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It's important to remember that the emotion of fear, in and of itself,
is not a bad thing. Fear is just as necessary an emotion as the emotion
of love, or joy or self-confidence.
Fear's function is to keep us safe. It will cause us to run away
from danger or will keep us from doing something stupid like jumping in the
water if you can't swim.
Yet while fear has it's place, we CAN allow it to run our life and
keep us from trying anything new.
Tony Robins said that one of the best ways of combating fear is to
use fear against itself. In other words, become more fearful of the
consequences of fear rather than the thing we fear. For example, what will you
miss out on if we won't fly on an airplane? Who will you miss the
opportunity to see? What exciting experiences will you miss out on and
what lasting memories will you never create because you were too afraid to fly?
Fearing THESE consequences MORE than the fear of flying will help
you get past this debilitating fear.
Fear is really a matter of your own mental focus. Think
about it; when you are fearful of something, what you are focusing on?
You are merely thinking of all the things that COULD go wrong.
They haven't gone wrong yet - and there's a good chance they won't!
You just imagine that they MIGHT go wrong.
For example, if you are fearful of speaking in front of others,
your thoughts might be something like this: "Oh no, I'm probably
going to embarrass myself in front of everyone!" "I think I
will just sound stupid!" "What if I trip on the stage in front of everyone!" and so on.
These thoughts can make you nervous and fearful and you will
allow that imagined
fearful situation to keep you from growing and experiencing something
new. What is the opposite of fear? CONFIDENCE! COURAGE! Think about it, when you are confident, where is your focus? What would you be saying to
yourself then? Your thoughts would be different, wouldn't they!
In this scenario, you would be focused on how excited you are to
give this presentation. You are already thinking about how much people
will like it and how they will benefit from it.
Your body language will be different too! When you are
fearful, you tend to be more timid in your movements. Your voice is not
as strong, you lack eye contact, etc.
On the other hand, when you are confident, your shoulders
are back, your head is up, your stride is intentional, your voice is strong, and
you have eye contact with people along with a pleasant smile.
Since fear is really nothing more than an emotion and is
based on the focus of your own thoughts, you can combat fear with an
intentionally different focus and stronger thoughts. You can also squash fear with your deliberate body movements and
posture. This means you have more control over fear than you may ever
have imagined!
Just ACTING AS IF YOU HAVE COURAGE GIVES YOU MORE COURAGE!
Conducting yourself as
if you were confident gives
you more confidence!
So - there you have it. You can easily control fear by
1. Using fear against itself by fearing the consequences of
succumbing to fear.
succumbing to fear.
2. Focusing on what will go
RIGHT rather than what could possibly
go WRONG ... and by
go WRONG ... and by
3. Deliberately using your body posture, your voice, your eye
contact, and gestures in a way that will build your confidence.
Vincent Van Gogh said: If you hear a voice within you say
“you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”~ Vincent Van Gogh
Do the thing you fear to do and silence that voice of fear
forever!
Leanne Cannon
Author, Speaker, Business Coach
Social Media Marketing Trainer
330-400-9814
