6 Steps To Overcome Your Fears

Fears and phobias can often become so intense in one’s life that they start controlling every aspect of it. While there are functional fears that are meant to protect humans from harm, there are other dysfunctional fears that are often all in our heads, and they can be the cause for one’s self-destruction. This inevitable self-destruction is the reason why overcoming your fears can be one of the best things you can ever do for yourself.

Do not let your fears control you and teach yourself how to overcome them so you can live your life to the fullest. Some of the most incredible strategies that you can use to overcome your fears include:

1. Think about What You Want to Accomplish

Having fears often means that you have to back off from a lot of goals you want to accomplish in life, and this can become distressing for many. Even the most common fears prevent people from achieving their full potential.

For example, if you have a dream of getting a promotion at your job and for that promotion, you need to present a proposal in front of a room of 5 executives at your organization; you might never even apply for the promotion if you have a fear of public speaking. The public speaking task might be right for someone else, and they might end up with the promotion instead of you.

You need to think long and hard about what you can accomplish if you had the chance to overcome your fears. By taking time to realize what you could accomplish you will help motivate yourself to overcome your fears because you will see clearly why it will be worth it to you!

2. Get Clarity On Your Fears

Being very specific about your fears will help you gain valuable insight into your mind and its workings. Maybe you want to start a side business but you are afraid of failure... However, specifically what you are afraid of is what you family and friends will think of you if you attempt to start a business but fail. Specifying your fears like this will help you to get clear on what you need to overcome. It will also help you be able to often see how the fears we have are often rather small! Is the fear of what others think of you really worth holding you back?

3. Take Action To Prevent Your Fears

What are some actions you can take to prevent the fear from coming true? 

If you are afraid to ask your boss for a promotion because you are afraid they might say no, then take time to prepare a pitch of why you are the perfect person for the job. Taking actions like this can help reduce the chance that the fear even happens!

Rather than having your fears stop you from taking action, use them to motivate you to work harder to get the desired outcome.

4. Plan For The Worst

Think about your fear, and then ask yourself, if this happened, how could you fix it? 

More times than not, we are able to come up with a list of possible solutions that would fix our worst case scenario. For example, if you want to start a business but you are afraid of failing (first, like the previous step mentioned, use this fear to motivate yourself to work extra hard in preparing for the business launch) think about what you could do if the business did fail? Could you return back to your current job? Would you be able to work again to make back an money lost? 

By listing out ways you could recover if your fears do come true, it will give you more confidence to face them because you will know that you can recover from them.

5. Focus On Growth

How will overcoming your fear make you a better person? If you can overcome this fear, don't you think you will be more capable of overcoming more faers in the future? What opportunities will this provide? How will this improve your confidence?

If you take time to think about how overcoming this fear will help you to grow and develop as a person, you will start to realize that these fears are opportunities for you to grow!

Think about what the future has in store for you and all that you can accomplish by overcoming your fears. Think about a possible promotion at work or a risk you always wanted to take but were too afraid to.

By overcoming one fear, you will boost your confidence to overcome more!

6. Reward Yourself

Rewarding yourself can be one of the essential parts of overcoming your fears because this will motivate you to keep reaching for your goals. Overcoming a fear is a big deal so it definitely deserves a reward!

Rewards can be as big or small as you would like. Maybe you treat yourself to a meal from your favorite restaurant, or for a large fear, maybe you treat yourself to a weekend trip. Whatever it is, plan the reward in advance and use it as motivation to encourage yourself to overcome your fears.

Conclusion

While overcoming your fears might seem like a herculean task, the secret ingredient is pretty basic... It's ACTION! Small actions will boost your confidence to take larger ones. All you need is a little motivation, some willpower and a strategy that you believe will be most appropriate for your particular fear.

To help, we made a FREE PDF to help guide you through the process. Download the pdf below and follow the exercises to help yourself overcome your fears and start experiencing more!