Throughout my life I have had many, many moments of fear and self-doubt and some great opportunities slipped through my fingers. Have you ever had that moment of awareness when you too have missed out on something good because of fear? Have you ever thought about how fear affects the quality of your life? Does it limit you? Does it keep you safe?
When we are in the grip of fear, we are not true to ourselves. We put up a wall of protection and we shut down our instincts, abilities and self-worth. We get caught up in perceptions, comparisons and appearances and really lose touch with the reality around us and the fearful situations we sometimes find ourselves in. When we are in a state of fear we tend to look at the most negative possibilities, to look at all the worst-case scenarios. We start to see and imagine things that are most likely not going to happen and we can rarely imagine the best-case scenarios.
When we learn to accept ourselves – our achievements, our successes as well as our failures, inadequacies and shallow desires, we can then embrace our fears and conquer them with confidence and knowing. When we learn to question the basis of the fear, to question the fear others place on us and not just settle for the status quo, then we become a master of controlling fear and using it to our advantage.
It is a good reminder, that everybody faces fear, that everybody has failures, and everybody has the opportunity to tackle fear and achieve success! Some take that opportunity more than most and those that do, are the ones who gain self-confidence and learn skills and techniques on the ways to manage and overcome fear.
The longer you hold onto the fear, the longer you internalize it, worry about it, fixate on it, the more power you give it. The more powerful the fear, the more paralyzing it becomes. You end up placing far more limitations on your life because of that fear. Take the power away from the fear by confronting it head on – that simply is by taking action!
Don’t carelessly react to your fears. Catch yourself and stop for a second and think about whether the fear is well founded. Being overly fearful will limit your success time and time again.
It’s your life, and to the best of my knowledge you only get one. Why not live it fully? Limit your fears before they limit you.
