Source: Dharma Comics
How many times has fear stopped you from achieving your full potential?
Fear in many forms tends to hold us back, controlling our thoughts and our mind. How many times has fear impacted your life or stopped great things from happening? To get truly great results you must shift your thoughts and overcome irrational fears that are holding you back.
“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself —nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance” Franklin D. Roosevelt
In 1933, in his inauguration speech, Roosevelt used the word ‘nameless’ to describe the fear or terror that people felt. We can be certain that the average American at that time could easily have labelled those fears:
- Fear of unemployment
- Of poverty
- Of eviction
- Of starvation
These are all real and rational fears that can, at their worst, incapacitate a person’s mind, soul and spirit.
There are of course other incapacitating or ‘irrational’ fears such as Fear of
- Failure
- Rejection
- Disapproval
- Ostracism and many more.
Fears founded to guard against rejection or disapproval and to preserve our status in our social or work groups. These are the fears that either consciously or subconsciously govern our behaviour when we stretch beyond our comfort zone.
Although the irrational fears described above are real and powerful, they do not threaten our lives. Yes, they are real and utterly incapacitating but regardless of what happens, we survive and live to fight another day. Irrational fears are immobilising fears that have a greater force than the opposing force ‘desire’ to try something new. This type of paralysis is the ultimate killer of potential.
How do we overcome the powerful force of irrational fears?
Acceptance:
First, we have to accept that ‘fear’ is the greatest obstacle from achieving our full potential. We also must accept that when we find ourselves in situations that threaten rejection or social ridicule we deploy tried and tested habits to ‘protect’ ourselves. To protect the status quo. These habits, in effect, govern our behaviour both consciously and subconsciously and are so successful at preventing social disapproval that we no longer question them. They have become completely automated.
In parallel, we still find ourselves with aspirations and dreams to achieve more, move upwards, onwards and advance, ‘to boldly go’. However, in the great internal and unconscious battle of ‘fear of rejection’ vs ‘desire to achieve’ there is always only going to be one winner.
To win, we must embrace change. Seriously.
- We must accept that what holds us back are ‘irrational’ fears.
- When increasing the desire to try something completely new, we need to have the self-awareness to manage the paralysing fears that are holding us back.
These take hold when we try something new, push ourselves outside our comfort zone. Reminding ourselves in the moment that these fears are irrational, we begin to take control back and support our desire to change to something new. This inevitably changes our behaviour which in turn changes our results.
We all know that ‘to get a different result we must do something different’. Sounds easy, but we must break free from those fears governing our behaviour, not so easy. Don’t let fear kill your potential. Your desires and dreams depend on you unleashing your potential. “In each of us, there is another whom we do not know” Carl Jung.
Put fear to rest and boldly go.