Fear. Just saying the word makes you cringe. It brings to mind all sorts of things that care the daylights out of you. It could be snakes. Speaking in front of large groups. Heights.
Whatever it is, the simple thought of doing or confronting that thing you fear can stop you completely in your tracks or send you 
running.
Confession time…in the past I let fear hold me back in many ways. As with most things I teach, I’ve had to learn to work through fears daily. It’s not easy, but the results are very rewarding!
Nature vs. Nurture
I don’t know a single person that doesn’t have a fear of something else beyond the two that were born with: 1) the fear of falling and 2) the fear of loud sounds.
Somewhere along the line, something teaches us to fear things around us.
Maybe we had a bad experience as a kid with a big hairy Siberian husky named Ivan and we become afraid of large mean looking dogs.
It could be that someone laughed when we tried something new and we vowed never to do it again for fear of being teased.
Whatever the reason, most fears are learned behavior.
Often times our fears aren’t grounded in anything real. One acronym for FEAR sums this up, describing FEAR as False Evidence Appearing Real meaning that we give something more meaning than we should.
The Success Difference
I’ve heard many times that one key difference between people who are successful and people who aren’t is that they both feel fear, but the successful people push on through the fear.
Successful people get used to being afraid, and then moving on despite it.
Productivity Blocking Fears
In my work with clients, I’ve seen that there are a few underlying fears that can block someone from reaching their goals. Are you struggling with one of these?
- Success—this happens when you are worried about doing something so well and having to improve on it time and time again.
- Failure—none of us want to fail at something we try especially in front of people we respect.
- Criticism—ever had something you loved picked apart by someone else. Being critiqued is hard and no one wants to have their dreams picked apart, right?
- Exposure—sometimes, we get scared to try because we don’t to expose what we don’t know or feel vulnerable.
- Expectations—living up to the expectations of others is a hard thing. When you know they’ve set the bar higher than you feel comfortable reaching, you may get scared. You may hate the idea of being limited by someone else’s goals.
- Unknown—change and the unknown are two of the biggest fears we face. We are taught to keep thing status quo, and anything that will rock the boat will freak us out.
- Rejection– no one likes to hear the word No. Often times, we’ll avoid trying for fear of being turned down. We’ll never know until we try though.
Will You Run or Rise?
Zig Ziglar famously said that “F-E-A-R has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything and Run,’ or, ‘Face Everything and Rise.’
How do you face your fears? Do you run, hide or avoid that big thing? Or do you rise to the occasion and tackle your fear head on?
We all know what happens when we choose to run. We get stuck in the past and never move forward. We dream the same dreams and talk about the same goals over and over again. We never get anything done!
When we rise, we push past the fear. We figure out how to move past the road block. We surprise ourselves when we overcome and reach higher than we thought we could. We open businesses, we get promotions, we are truly able to help others.
Are you letting fear block your greatness? Are you ready to rise and stop running? Let’s connect and talk about your path forward.