I have a history with Fear. And, I bet you do too. Because we humans will always have fears.
For a long time, I allowed Fear to control my actions. I didn't create boundaries and say No to a lot of things I didn’t want to do because I was afraid of being judged, afraid of disappointing others. I didn’t pursue opportunities, didn’t take risks because I was afraid to fail, afraid I wasn’t good enough.
But I decided that I didn’t want fear to hold the power over my life. So I had to come up with a process I could use every time fear reared its ugly head. Let’s say you’re afraid to accept an invitation to speak.
First, you identify the fear. “I’m afraid to speak because I don’t know what the heck I would say.” Second, you think about what the worst possible outcome could be; I mean really think about the most horrible result you can imagine. “I will stand up there for 30 minutes not saying a word and being ridiculed and my career will be over.”
Now that you’ve gotten catastrophic out of the way, the third step is to ask yourself what you know to be true—what the facts are. “I have three months to figure out what I’m going to say, which is plenty of time to prepare.” The facts are almost always exponentially better than the BS fear story we make up in our heads.
Finally, adopt a battle cry that you tell yourself to ignite action in spite of the fear. I love #FFEAR! You can make the F stand for whatever you want—fight, forget, farewell. For me, it’s a bit more colorful, if you get my drift. Whatever it is, adopt this mantra to take back your power. And I encourage you to teach this process to the kids in your life. I do it with ours, and I’m so thrilled they have this tool long before I figured it out!
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