Three Sure-fire Ways To Knock Out Fear

ByDorothy M. Neddermeyer Ph.D.

Fear is the number one reason people fail to accomplish their dreams and goals.

Fear can hold you back in your career, your relationships, and other endeavors.

Is fear of the unknown or judgment from others, holding you back from pursuing your dreams and creating a life you truly love living?

These 10 common fears can be resolved easily and effectively. What fears are holding you back?

  1. The Fear of Failure or Success

The most common fear in the world is a fear of failure or success. Many people won’t do something new unless there is a guarantee they will win. Failure is inherent in life.  Learning from failure helps you create success. Each thing that doesn’t work is one step closer to success.

  1. Fear of Uncertainty–Unknown

The fear of uncertainty often prevents people from doing something different. They often worry, “What if I don’t like it?” “If it doesn’t work, I will look like a fool.” This fear will prevent people from doing new things or doing things differently from the way they’ve been done.

  1. Fear of Change

Change is constant. However, many people fear change. As a result, they resist it. The fear of change can cause people to become stagnant and they may miss out on a lot of really good opportunities in life.

  1. Fear Judgment

People who worry that they’ll be judged by others often shy away from social opportunities or chances to advance their career/dreams. People who adopt this fear often exaggerate how others will perceive them negatively and underestimate their ability to tolerate not being well-received by others.

  1. The Fear of Inadequacy—Not good enough

One of the top fears many people share is that they’re just not good enough. They may pass up opportunities for a promotion or may decline an opportunity to lead a group because they worry that they’re inadequate. Often, they overcompensate for their fears by trying to be a perfectionist but remain plagued by thoughts that they just don’t measure up to other people.

  1. The Fear of Rejection

Many people avoid entering into new relationships or meeting new people due to a fear of rejection. Even married people often avoid approaching a long-time spouse to ask for something due to a fear that the person will say no. Whether you fear your boss declining your request for a raise, or a fear that the attractive person won’t go on a date with you, your fear creates your reality. You hold yourself back and therefore, you prevented yourself from going for your desire—thus, creating your reality of not creating your desire..

  1. Fear of Loneliness

Sometimes people stay in bad relationships or resist living alone due to their fear of loneliness. Learning how to tolerate being alone and finding ways to keep yourself company can help manage the fear of loneliness.

  1. The Fear of Loss of Freedom

Although you might have some fear of the loss of freedom, some people allow this fear to hold them back. Many people enjoy the freedom they have as a single person and as a result, they avoid serious relationships due to a fear that they won’t be able to tolerate the loss of the freedom. Although some loss of freedom does accompany a serious relationship, it’s important to balance independence with dependence and maintain some freedoms.

  1. The Fear of Something Bad

It’s inevitable, negative things transpire. However, when people constantly fear something bad will be the outcome, it restricts your ability to create your dreams. You might avoid doing a lot of things or going to certain places due to an unrealistic fear that bad things are around the corner.

  1. Fear of Getting Hurt

Some fear of getting hurt is a reminder to take good care of your safety. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t look both ways before you crossed the street. However, people who have a fear of being emotionally hurt often refuse to enter into relationships. They may avoid friendships, keep family at arm’s length, and skip romantic relationships due to a fear that they won’t be able to handle getting hurt.

What to do:

You might have read books and articles with 10, 15, 20 ways to eliminate fear, taken workshops, had psychic readings, taken prescriptions and OTC drugs etc. and still struggle. You might feel over whelmed or discouraged to find a solution.

I understand your frustration. FEAR has been touted to be the boogey man creeping into your mind when you least expect it. Yet, you are the one putting the boogey man (fear) into your mind. Thus, you can change and put different thoughts into your mind. Here are:

Three Sure-fire Ways To Knock Out Fear

1.Rewire your brain.Beginning as a child, you were told negative things that you can’t do, be or have. If you fail to take the initiative to rewire your thoughts, you will continue to take your life in the direction others gave you.

Rewiring your brain is one of the surest ways to knock out your fears and develop the courage that is needed to get to where you want to go. For every negative thought you say to yourself, replace it with a positive thought. Develop mantras and affirmations that empower you and increase your self-confidence.

2. Develop a well thought out plan. We begin to worry and over analyze situations when we don’t have detailed and well thought out plans to achieve a goal. Set extremely clear goals with a detailed plan on how to achieve them. After you have a well detailed plan, take action. Taking action towards meaningful goals helps to relieve stress and gives you a huge sense of enjoyment. Fear creeps in and paralyzes us when you don’t plan to achieve your personal and professional desires and goals.

3. Do one thing every day that you haven’t done before. Living in your comfort zone is not the best way to live. Doing the things that take you out of your comfort zone you will increase the likelihood that your fears will disappear. It can be something small that you choose to do, but do something daily that you haven’t done. Step out of your comfort zone and work on becoming comfortable with what’s uncomfortable until it is comfortable. When you form the habit of doing something daily that you haven’t done before, your courage grows little by little. Soon enough, the barriers that once were holding you back vanish and your potential maximizes tremendously.

Doing something different doesn’t need to be huge:  It can be as easy as taking a different route to work, eating different food, a new hair style, getting up earlier to take a walk, reading a best-selling book and the list goes on.