Fear Stops People Living Their Dreams: Useful Tip Overcome Fear

Fear stops people from pursuing their dreams. It's a feeling that many of us have experienced at some point in our lives. The fear can be in the form of a physical sensation, such as butterflies in your stomach or an uneasy feeling about something you're doing. Or it may manifest itself mentally as anxiety or worry about what could happen if you do go ahead and pursue your dream goal. In this post, I'll discuss how fear affects us and provide a mindset hack to overcome the fear! So, let's go.

Fear is a natural human emotion.

No matter how hard we try to fight it, fear will always be there in some capacity. It can show up when you least expect it and make life miserable for the people around us too.

Fear is your mind sensing danger creating a fight or flight response.

You see, we are evolutionarily programmed to feel fear.

Let's say, some ancestors did not feel any fear. (and there probably was... R.I.P)  How long do you think they lasted in the wild?  Needless to say, those ancestors without fear did not make it into our DNA, because they ended up being lunch.

So, fear is a vital component of being a human, a survival mechanism.

That is why we saw panic buys at the shopping centres when Covid 19 came around. Where were these logical thoughts that people had? Logically we all knew if we carried our shopping habits as normal, the toilet paper will be there as usual.

But people were gripped by fear... "what happens if the toilet paper runs out..."

All they could imagine was that it would be a SH^T show. Right? So, that drove them to buy far more than they needed.  Leaving rational folks without toilet paper.

But that's not the end of it, folks.

Fear is addictive

Just like our brain craves a repeat of the dopamine hit when it does something it enjoys (eating sweet stuff or drinking alcohol), it works the same way in reverse when avoiding stuff. It will seek out to avoid painful things in order to limit its exposure to failure.  

It becomes a never-ending cycle.

What if you believe that your fear prevents you from achieving your goals, and you are determined to change? So, what do you do now?

You need to decide how much longer you will let fear control your actions and decisions in life.

Understanding WHY your destructive fear takes over is key.

Firstly we need to understand what kind of situation triggers your worry and result in a binge-fest of food, Netflix or both.

Simply analysing your own habit loops is the first step in understanding your own anxiety. What sorts of situations cause anxiety or other distressing thoughts? Do you become furious, or do you attempt to numb yourself with Netflix and snacks? And what actions has your brain learnt to respond to in order to calm or occupy you?

Where do these kinds of behaviours lead?

Writing down as many fear triggering habit loops as possible will enable you to gain a new perspective and can be very helpful in identifying your fear challenges. It allows you to see patterns in your behaviour and provide you with useful insights that you can leverage in working towards overcoming your fear challenges.

This is no mean feat and can be very challenging to undertake, but the more you practice this skill, the better you will become at recognizing all of your fear-based patterns.

However, a word of warning here, make sure this does not turn into another habit loop of over analysing and creating a "New Plan" again.

Once you understand that this fear is a coping mechanism for an uncomfortable situation, it becomes clear that in order to lose the fear, you need to lose the habit that starts off the fear.

Changing how we feel about it

It is important to recognise that fear will always be there but how you deal with it is the game-changer.

But it is important to realise that fear is nothing more than YOUR thoughts.

Let me give you an example.

let us say I fear that this post will bomb, and no one reads it, or it bombs because you read it and say: "What are you on about?"

But at this stage (time of writing), it's only my thoughts in my head, and you have not read this. If you are reading this text in the final version of this post, that means I had gone through it a few times to make sure it makes sense before I pressed the "Publish Button".

So in my view, I don't allow fear to ruin my day because it is still in my control.

I can only legitimately feel fear a moment before pressing "publish", but if I have done everything to the best of my abilities, I should not fear it because it is the best I can do.

And if I fail then, I learn from it.

Actionable Advice: Give your fear a voice.

If you have a voice in your brain that tells you "you're going to fail," Choose a real or fictional character and repeat these worries in that person's voice. I know it seems ridiculous, but it works.

Here are a few examples:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump, Sly Stallone ....  You get the drift.

If you see images of your imminent failure, I propose envisioning them to be cartoon representations of your vision. Think Bugby Bunny, Micky Mouse, or funky colours.

Example: 👇

Trust me, it will seem absurd and this way, it will lose its power over you and allow you to manage it.  

Next time you hear that voice or start seeing the doom and gloom, then try these hacks they will help you. Fear only works if you let it take over. Understanding that it's only a thought that is only in your head will help you deal with it.

Fear can be a powerful emotion that creates an intense feeling of unease and discomfort. Where does fear come from? You may not realise it, but the root cause is often in your head. When you recognise what's triggering these feelings, you'll find it easier to break out of the looping pattern they create. There are also patterns that start fear loops; recognising them will help stop this cycle from occurring again. As long as we're only talking about our own thoughts, there's no need for any anxiety! Subscribe to my blog below, so you don't miss future posts on how to live a life that matters.