9 Ways to overcome fear
I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened.
Mark Twain knew it:
So many of our fears stem from doom-scenario thinking 🤯.
This scenario in your head is often not aligned with the reality. I like the acronym F.E.A.R. (Fantasized Experiences Appearing Real) to remind myself that in most cases, I’m not basing myself on reality but I’m rather projecting something negative into the future.
As with everything, being aware of this is step 1.
With this awareness, you can try to change your thinking and imagination in order to minimize the fear in this moment.
It will probably not be as bad as you think.
As Will Smith says:
The point of maximum danger is the point of minimum fear.
Here some things I do to minimize or overcome my fears:
Remember how you’ve triumphed in the face of fear in the past. You’ve done this before!
Replace the catastrophic image with a positive one.
Focus on the feelings that you might experience when you face your fear (courage, pride, joy, self-confidence, ...).
Scale down the risk. Make the step smaller if it’s really too much to take on at once. That’s fine!
Restate the fear. For example: I’d really like to_____ (skydive), and I scare myself by imagining_____ (that I would die)
Allow the fear, don’t try to fight it or push it away.
But after that: do what you fear. This is the only way to really get over your fears! It will prove to your brain that it was’t that bad, diminishing the automatic doom-scenario response. The more you do it, the feebler the fear (or at least the stress-response) becomes.
Write down your fears. Get them out of your system.
Use humor on your fears (look at it as a comedian would).
Use Fear Setting to strengthen your desire to take action despite the fear. You can download the journal here: The Fear Setting Journal
What do you do to overcome your fears? Let me know in the comments!
You can also check this post (in Dutch) with some more tips & insights to overcome fear and self-doubt!
Also, check out Will Smith’s excellent and fun explanation of fear:
