Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Jack Canfield's Success Principle #15

Many people never achieve their dreams, because they allow fear to get it in the way. Jack provides some helpful methods for overcoming our anxieties that are holding us back.

(1) Understand why we are all fearful.

God built into us an automatic response system that helps us to react to fear. If we are threatened, adrenalin rushes through our system to give us the strength to either fight or flee. This response system can become highly over-reactive in people who have experienced abuse or trauma.

We can regain control over this imbalance if we simply understand that our reaction to fear is natural. Everyone experiences it. We can learn to control it so that nothing stops us from achieving our goals.

(2)Be willing to feel the fear.
If we aren't willing to ever feel some fear, we'll never achieve our dreams. Everyone gets butterflies in their stomachs before speaking before a large audience. But we can learn how to use that fear to our advantage to push onward.

Psalm 118:6-7 reads, The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? If we realize that most of our fears are unfounded and that God protects us along the way, we can develop greater courage to face scary ventures.

(3) Fear is Fantasized Experiences Appearing Real.
Almost all of our fears are self-created. It stands to reason, therefore, that if we create the fantasies of fear in our minds, we can get rid of them.

Jack recommends the following exercise for getting rid of fears:

-Create a list of things we're afraid to do;
-Restate each fear in the following format:

I want to __________________, and I scare myself by imgaining that ____________________________________.

I recognize that I am fearful about jumping back into the workforce after being on disability for many years. In the past, I have been politely asked to give up positions because my health interfered with my performance. Here is what my fear statement would look like:

I want to become independent of disability by writing and publishing books, and I scare myself by imagining that we'll be in trouble financially if I earn enough to end my disability payments and then get sick again.

(4) Get rid of fear.
We can make our fears disappear by asking ourselves what is scary. Then, we can replace that image with its opposite. We can create a new statement that looks like this:

I want to become independent of disability by writing and publishing books, and I imagine that we'll be financially free when I earn so much money that it won't matter if I don't have disability, even if I do get sick again.

(5) Replace the physical sensations that accompany fear.
Jack provides an excellent way to learn how to sense what happens to us physically when we think about our fears. First, we can focus on the feelings that go with fear: tense muscles, headache, uneasy stomach, etc.

Next, we can think about the feelings we'd rather have: joy, calm, confidence, etc.

We can shift back and forth between two of these feelings for 15 seconds each. In other words, think of that uneasiness in your stomach for 15 seconds, and then shift over to the calm that you feel when things go well for you for 15 seconds.

Keep making this shift between fear and calm for 1 to 2 minutes. By the time you're finished with this exercise, you will know that you can control the fear.

(6) Remember back to times when you triumphed in the face of fear.
Think of a time when you were scared, but you mustered up the courage and just did whatever it was that made you fearful. When we face a fear and act anyway, we develop confidence in ourselves. The next time a similar situation occurs, we can remember our courage so that fear doesn't stop us.

This past Sunday, I knew that I needed to go forward at the end of the church service to tell everyone that God had answered their prayers regarding my health. Speaking in front of large crowds has always terrified me, and I didn't want to do it. But I knew that God needed to be honored for his mercy, so I made myself walk up there.

When the pastor handed me the microphone, and I looked out at that sea of faces, I took a deep breath and tried to sound intelligent. My knees were shaking so hard, I thought my legs would give out. But when everyone burst into applause and smiled broadly at me, I realized that I wouldn't have missed that moment for anything. If I can triumph in the face of fear, so can you.

(7) Scale down the risk.
Jack suggests starting with smaller challenges and working our way up to the more difficult ones. By following this excellent advice, we can develop our courage and our confidence.

Talking to small groups of people that I know used to terrify me as much as speaking before a large audience. Now, the small group stuff is a breeze. Someday, the large audiences will be, too.

(8) Figure out if your fear is really a phobia.
If we've got a fear that's preventing us from functioning normally, we've got to deal with it. It's not necessary to be terrified of walking up a set of stairs, flying on an airplane, getting into a car, and so on.

Jack recommends Dr. Roger Callahan's Five-Minute Phobia cure. You can find it at www.ftfrx.com.

Today's Challenge
Today, take a leap and transform your life. Make a list of 10 things that you're afraid to do. Write them out in the format suggested above, and then re-write them with the opposite outcome.