5 Ways to Beat your Fears
By Carrol Baker
‘Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.’ – Winston Churchill
Are you reluctant to try new things or get involved in projects for fear of failure? Afraid of trying out for a new team at work, worried you’re not good enough to make the cut? Do you only put your hand up for work projects you know you’ll ace?
Fear can be crippling, debilitating and wreak havoc with your self-esteem. But you can take steps to overcome your fears with the right attitude, and a little know-how. Fear is not an option.
5 Ways to Beat Your Fears
1. Reframe it
If you have an established mantra of ‘I know I’m gonna fail’, turn it on its head. Instead, run with ‘I’m going to do my best’. ‘I’m going to learn from this no matter what the outcome.’ Positive affirmations have the potential to help you overcome your fears. It’s important to own your feelings, it’s ok to feel uncertain when you step outside your comfort zone. Accept that failure is part of the process of improvement.
2. Tap into your imagination
Visualisation is a powerful tool. Not only is it empowering, it kicks your subconscious into gear and gets those creative juices flowing. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and slowly, and with purpose. Shut out any distractions. Imagine yourself already heading up the focus group team. Or picture yourself in a photo on social media, holding up the team trophy, grinning from ear to ear.
3. Take baby steps
Successful athletes don’t just strap on their joggers and run a 42-kilometre long-distance marathon. They train hard, they foster fitness and psychological resilience and they add incremental distance markers as they go – a 5-k run, a 10-k run, a half marathon. Don’t let the scale of a challenge undermine your confidence. Start small and build your confidence.
4. Failure is the pathway to success
Many famous people failed spectacularly before finding success. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard. Walt Disney was fired by an editor because he lacked imagination. Billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay fox was asked to leave school because he wasn’t interested in learning. Failure can be painful. But sometimes failure is a necessary means to allow us to regroup. To mull over another idea. To travel down another path in life’s journey.
5. Just do it!
You can’t predict the future. Sometimes you have to arm yourself with knowledge, resources, and support, then take a leap of faith. Most of the time, there really is no perfect moment to launch yourself into the abyss. Close your eyes, hang on tight and jump. You never know; you just might begin to live the life you’ve always dreamed of.
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