Has Your Fear Become a Habit?

Has your fear become a habit? Are you afraid to try something new even before you’ve considered that maybe you can handle what comes your way?

How do you know if you haven’t tried yet?

Sometimes we are more connected to our habit of fear or worry than to the actual fear itself. Our fear becomes a convenient excuse to avoid taking action that requires courage. As Sarah Rayner writes, we never get to learn how to overcome our fears if we never face them.

Question your fears.

Expanding your comfort zone requires a different approach from your default reaction of “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that, it’s too scary…” Instead, ask yourself “what if I couldn’t fail?” or “what would my inner cheerleader say?” to push the boundaries of your comfort zone. If you’d like to receive a list of challenge questions like these, simply subscribe to the Face Your Fears blog and a list will be emailed to you.

What’s behind your fears?

Questioning your fears gives you the opportunity to challenge them and explore the motivations that are lurking behind them. For example, you may think you’re afraid of failure, but could it be that you’re really afraid of success and could that be because you don’t feel that you deserve success? (gasp!)

Go slow and be gentle on yourself.

Once you’ve decided to question your fears, go slow and be gentle on yourself. Don’t expect massive change all at once. A ‘baby steps’ approach will be more sustainable and less frightening. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the progress you’ll make with slow and steady determination.

Ready to roar?

When you’re questioning your fears, the result can be incredibly empowering and liberating. Empowering, because you’ll observe yourself accomplishing feats that you didn’t think you could achieve. Liberating, because now you are no longer bound by self-imposed limitations. Your world has opened up to possibility. Ready to roar? That’s more like it.

Image by GlobaIP (iStock)