How Do You Overcome Fear?

Have you ever heard of John Maxwell? If you do, then you must have a clue what my blog would be today. If you don’t know him, well, I am here to agree with his blog. His blog talks about fear. I will ask you, what is fear for you? For him, fear is universal. It crosses all boundaries of race, culture, religion and generation. For me, fear is a part of life. Every person has a fear (that is a fact) even if it is a big deal or not. Maybe some of us already faced our fears and not yet conquered it. Some also faced it already and found a way to conquer it. And maybe most of us did not yet encounter our personal fears. But I am here to give some tips and examples on how you can overcome your fears.

Here is a list on how you can get over it.

Discover the foundation of fear

The fact is that most fear is not based on fact. Much of what we fear is based on a feeling (according to John Maxwell). We need to acknowledge where the majority of the fear is unfounded. This will be the start of releasing yourself from its power. Some personalities understood this that is why they have achieved great goals. If you are a George Patton fanatic then you probably know that he is one of the people who achieved great things. He said, “I learned very early in life not to take counsel of my fears.” Another one is a businessman, Allen Nueharth, who said he already faced his biggest fear but it turned out to be not as big as he imagined. He realized it and said “I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn’t fall down.”

Admit your fears

I will be posting John Maxwell’s explanation for this part because that whole part is so true and very well said.

One of our biggest misconceptions is that courage equals a lack of fear.  In actuality, the opposite is true. Mark Twain explained, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.” By admitting our fear, we can then challenge its accuracy.

That’s how General Patton dealt with it: “The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision,” he said. “That’s the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all of your fears and go ahead!”

For me, it will not make you less manly if you do not admit your fear. In fact, it will make you more manly if you admit it then you can call yourself a man.

Accept the frailty and brevity of life

Sometimes our greatest fears are founded on reality. For example, we are all going to die sometime. There’s no denying that. Likewise, life will often be hard and painful. Those things are completely out of our control. By accepting their reality, we can then focus on the things we actually can control.

I love what Gertrude Stein wrote about fear: “Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really frightening.”

This also came from John Maxwell’s blog. We should accept the reality. We cannot outrun or outsmart these events in reality.

Accept fear as the price of progress

In life, we cannot prove that somebody did not even risk something or someone for even once. Everybody will have to take risks even if you like or not. Also if there is a dream there would always be a nightmare. This means that as long as you have goals in life, there would also be fears in life.

Develop a burning desire that overcomes fear

Sometimes the best way to fight fear is to focus on our reason for confronting it.

 – John Maxwell

We need to focus on it in order for us to control it. We should think that we can deal with our fears. We should also think that the burning desire that overcomes fear is a lot bigger than our fear.

Focus on what you can control

This time we will get John Maxwell’s thoughts about this. He said “As a leader, I often have to deal with the wrong attitudes and actions of the people who follow me. So a long time ago, I decided that,

I can control my attitude, but not others’ actions.

I can control my calendar, but not others’ circumstances.

And it’s not what happens to me, but what happens in me.”

John wooden (an American basketball coach) also said “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

We cannot control what will happen in our lives but we can direct our lives to a result that we wanted it to be.

Focus on today

This will be greatly explained by my favourite line from a popular movie (Kung Fu Panda). “Yesterday was history, tomorrow will be a mystery and today is a gift that is why they call it the present.” We should learn to face the present and think about the future not go back to your past and predict your future.

Put some wins under your belt

You cannot gain courage if you haven’t faced any fear. Being more courageous will result to more courage and being more fearful will result to more fears. We can only learn from experience.

Do it now

Since you have already read my blog, now it is time for you to act. As a saying goes, “Action speaks louder than words”.

As W. Clement Stone also said, “When thinking won’t cure fear, action will.”

Well that is the end of my blog. I hope you liked it please leave a comment below. Thank you for reading. I would just like to thank John Maxwell for giving a very inspiring talk. I was really inspired.

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Bertrand Russell

Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.

Clare Booth Luce