Is fear holding you back?

Is fear holding you back from leaving your corporate role, starting a new job, taking the promotion, growing your business or going travelling and exploring the world?

What causes fear?

Many people would be surprised to know that their fears have been learnt throughout the course of their lifetime. Babies are born with two fears; the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Any other fears you experience have been learnt. They may have been acquired through your personal experiences, situations that have happened to you, or things that you have seen happen to others. They have most likely marked your mind and impacted you emotionally, leaving you feeling fearful.

You may be fearful of what people will think, what they will say, what will happen, what will not happen. You may be fearful of trying something new, of getting up on stage, or of making yourself visible. It may seem too risky. But the truth is, it is all risky.

Getting into a new relationship is risky, having a baby is risky, starting a new career is risky and investing your money into a new business is risky. The problem is people focus on the risk of trying. Let us consider this:

• What is the risk of not trying?
• What is the risk of listening to your fear and being in the same position in 10 years time?
• What is the risk of living with the idea of what could have been if you just tried?

A lot of people do not feel they have the confidence to try. They do not feel they are good enough, they do not have the skills, knowledge or know-how to do it. The key thing to recognize here is that you cannot wait until you feel confident to get started.

Fear and confidence

Confidence comes from doing. It is a result and not a pre-requisite. Your confidence will grow when you take action. Start showing your brain the evidence that it is possible and that you can do it. This will start to build your confidence. Your brain needs the proof that you can overcome the obstacles you once thought were impassable. Start proving your brain wrong.

That is not to say that you won’t face setbacks or failures along the way. You will. How you respond to those failures will determine your path. If you allow them to dent your confidence and stop you every time then your path will be a short one. If you instead accept that it is part of the journey and extract learning from the experience then your path will continue.

"I never failed once – it just happened to be a 2000-step process." Thomas A. Edison

The quicker you fail the quicker you will learn. The quicker you will learn the quicker you will grow. Do not let the fear of failure hold you back. Do not let fear hold you back from trying and taking the first step. Prove your brain wrong. Take action.