You need to do something for yourself today; make the decision to stop letting fear rule your life...
- Stop hesitating
- Stop wavering
- Stop faffing
- Stop questioning
Tell the fearful Negative Committee in your head to shut the hell up, and refuse to be ruled by fear. Then get on with all the epic stuff you were born to do.
WHAT IS FEAR?
- Fear is avoiding a tough conversation you need to have.
- Fear is asking for advice when you already know what to do.
- Fear is waiting for more information before acting on what you already know.
Instead of being afraid, you must choose to be courageous, decide upon a courageous course of action and consciously refuse to fear. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; courage is the willingness to face it in spite of how you feel: Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway.
Of course, fear is natural, a biological reaction against things that could harm you. In this respect, fear is a positive, protective instinct, but it doesn't tell us to wrap ourselves in cotton wool; it simply alerts us to peril. This is not the kind of fear we’re talking about here though. The fear you and I experience when we i.e.: say we want to write a book or start our own business is personal and vindictive; it knows our secrets and gleefully pushes on our psychological bruises. This fear wants to keep us small, hidden and terrified, but endeavour can never be accomplished by the small, hidden and terrified. We need to mindfully override these self-limiting thoughts, beliefs and behaviours and strike a power pose.
When it comes to this type of fear, we are afraid of too many things; even things that are actually good for us; things like falling in love or chasing a dream. The risk feels too great, and so our survival instincts kick in. Our fight or flight response is triggered, and all too often, we decide to run. If you are going to do important work in this world however, you cannot run away. You must stay and face the fear, disciplining yourself in the art of making courageous decisions.
What does this look like? How do you finally face fear? Not by waiting for it to go away, that's for sure. You become unafraid by standing up for what really matters to you and going for it.
Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s the by-product of action!
Want to be brave? Then do the right thing, regardless of how you feel - and start now, not later. Take chances, climb mountains, dream big, and slowly courage will begin to replace the knee-jerk reaction to run. Bravery will become second nature. It may never be easy, but you can train yourself to not be paralysed by fear. You must make the decision, you must refuse to fear. Try saying it to yourself when you feel the urge to run, avoid or procrastinate setting in: "I REFUSE TO FEAR!" and then do the thing with a powerful sense of defiance.
What we’re talking about here — your decision to quit that job, become a captain of industry, or make a difference in the world — this is epic stuff. The stuff of heroes. So we need you to get over your insecurity and move forward. The stakes are too high to linger in the land of indecision. Over time, as you adapt to this new way of managing fear, you will find yourself becoming less afraid of what used to petrify you. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once famously said:
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance
That arch nemesis that once would have destroyed you, will now seem more like an inconvenience than a debilitating force. You’re in control now, and unwilling to go back to the old you that was paralysed by risk.
The cost of being un-heroic is just too great — be done with that. You have nothing to gain by cowering under your fears today, and everything - including your dream, to lose.
You must decide. You must commit. Refuse to fear. Start now!