You know that I LOVE to start my week with some positive words of wisdom:
You can read last week’s MMM here to get caught up on my ongoing ‘fear’ series.
Fear-Inducing Habit #5: You push your fear away.
When you try to deny a fear in your life, you may try to push it away or not think about it. This can cause it to grow stronger.
What to do instead:
I have found that pushing the fear away can certainly work and help you to not be paralyzed from taking action. But I have also discovered that it can sometimes be more helpful to accept the fear.
To accept that it is there instead of, for example, trying to tell yourself to focus on the positive like a laser-beam. And by accepting that you may not be good at one task or activity will free you from the fear that may be holding you back from other aspects of your business or personal life.
That may sound a bit vague, so here’s an example of how I do it.
- Breathe. Take a few breaths and focus only on the air going in and out to calm and center yourself a bit.
- Tell yourself something like: “Yes, the fear is here. It simply is at this point in time.”
- Take that feeling of fear in and just let it be there in your body and mind. It will be uncomfortable. But just for short while.
If you do this you will find that after a while – often just after a few minutes of discomfort in my experience – the fear starts to lose steam. It becomes a lot smaller or just seems to float away.
I start thinking about all the happy moments, friends, and loved ones that I have been blessed with. This makes it a lot easier to think clear and constructive thoughts again.
Keep an eye out for next week’s email. It will focus on why you may be making fear harder than it needs to be.
Carlos
