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How to overcome fear: In this article, we explore 11 practical steps to overcome fear. Key discussion points in this article are the meaning of fear, how it can debilitate you and also provide an opportunity to move forward. These steps involve personally identifying the source of your fears and taking incremental steps to build your confidence.

Meaning of Fear

While trying to overcome fear, the first step is in identifying the source of your fear. The second step is to find out what this means to you and finally find a way out of it. As weakening as these fears are, they are a great source of information. If we go back to the basic definitions of emotions -each emotion is a signal. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion

Even fear is a signal sent by our mind about something. This can be about doing something outside of your comfort zone. Or this fear can be about something new and unknown results. In simple terms, fear is telling you to do something to prepare the mind for situations that are not in your control.

Types of fear

There are multiple variations on types of fear. I’d like to stick the simplest version which talks about the three types of fears.

Rational Fear: This type of fear represents an immediate threat that you’re aware of. The chances of this threat coming true is high and it usually tells us to prepare for the consequences of such an occurrence.

Primal Fear: Primal fear is the innate fear that’s programmed into us. The primal fear manifests as a physical reference such as fear of spiders, dark etc. These are mostly natural fears and it is better to get a specialist consultation if it affects your daily life.

Irrational Fear: This represents the worst-case scenarios with a lower probability of occurrence. This type of fear is close to the definition of worry and can easily cause anxiety in us. In pure terms, an irrational fear doesn’t make logical sense to anyone listening to you talk about it.

You might ask how this is related to overcoming fear. The type of fear normally gives us an indication to define a reaction mechanism so that we find the best way to deal with it.

Ref: https://escapegames.ca/three-types-of-fear/

How to overcome fear – slideshow

This slideshow or gallery represents the steps involved in overcoming fear. The first and most important step is to identify what the fear is trying to tell you. Once you understand the message, the next step is to train your mind to find the best route out of it. Although it sounds like two steps, it is further broken down into granular steps as you will see in this slideshow on overcoming fear.

Slideshow for practical steps to face fear

Gallery on steps to overcome fear

Now that we have the context, the next few sections in this article will talk about the details of these individual sections to face our fears.

Quotes on Fear

Here is a gallery of quotes on fear that you might find interesting.

With this background, let’s now delve into the details of the steps involved in overcoming fear.

Steps to overcome fear

Identify the meaning of your fear

Every fear has a meaning associated with it. To understand how to overcome fear, you need to find its source. Fear often comes from a good place in your heart. It has a very important message to convey.

Most times, people get the wrong end of fear. They often think of fear as a message of incapability and bad feedback. Overcoming fear asks you to be a slightly clever person. Instead of falling into the trap of this thought process – ask yourself and spend time with your thoughts:

Questions to ask to understand the meaning of fear:

• What is fear trying to tell me?
• Is this fear rational?
• What advice would I give someone going through this fear?

Your emotions are pure – including fear. So, don’t try to suppress it. It only gets worse. Instead, embrace the fear for what it is and patiently listen to its message

Identify the purpose of fear

I like talking about understanding emotions. Since every emotion comes from you, they all deserve the same respect. This goes back to people labelling fear, failure and anger as negative emotions. To be honest, these are only emotions. Each of these is only trying to tell you something.

What is the fear trying to tell you?

• Is it trying to warn you about something
• Does the fear express its concern about your strategies?
• Are these fears trying to create a diversion from your real purpose?

Fear, just like any other emotion can mean several things. It is up to you to recognise the purpose of this fear and build a strategy to overcome fear.

Prepare for adverse situations

Fear sometimes identifies the worst results that can happen. It is only asking you this question – Will you be ready if things go wrong? You see, fear is a very simple messaging system. It poses the worst outcomes in a situation and asks your mind – Am I ready for this?

The fear normally grows in strength when you don’t have a mechanism to deal with the negative outcomes. The best way to deal with such fears is to create a fallback strategy. You don’t have to spend lots of time on it. Instead, simply write down a few points on how you can handle the adversity. Once you have this written down, you can stash it somewhere to look into as a fallback option.

This document can be a continually updated one, but it can send a message to your brain that you’re working towards dealing with fear proactively.

Find the balance between worry and fear

You can easily go overboard in responding to fear. Fear is a preparatory signal. It cannot be a distraction from your main goals. We talked about preparing for the adverse situation. But you have to notice the difference between preparation and being obsessively worried.

If you are obsessing over the negative outcomes, you’ve very little time to act on your actual goals. It is simple, isn’t it? Your emotions are triggered based on your actions and vice versa. If most of your energies are focused on creating results, then you’ve got a very good chance of succeeding. Instead, if you’re overly focused on not feeling afraid, then you might be missing out on what you need to do to progress. A key trick on how to overcome fear is by maintaining a clever balance between feedback and distraction.

Visualise success than just failure

Fear only tells you what can go wrong. Like any other emotion, fear draws some of your energy in preparing for a negative outcome. You need to replenish this energy to go after your dreams. The best way to do this is by visualising success more than failure.

You’ll need to learn to keep fears aside. Take quick actions to quell your mind off the fear. Focus on the positive outcomes of your effort. I’m not suggesting to ignore your fears, but I am suggesting that you don’t ignore your dreams because you’re afraid that something might go wrong.

Overcoming Fear is also about identifying whether you can be bigger than the fear

Fear can grow big and debilitating if you let it. Sometimes, you just have to ask this question – who is bigger here? If you can control your fears and be the leader for your emotions, fear will find a way to move to the background. Instead, if you give in, fear feeds on this and generates a weakness.

To address how to overcome fear, you will need to build your confidence about this fear. Stay strong and focused. Your strength can be driven by activities that can give you a success that can easily push fear into the background.

Objectively analyse your fear – Differentiate between rational and irrational fears

According to PR News, 84% of people hold on to irrational fears. If you look at this objectively – this is such a waste of time and emotions. Make sure that you listen to your fears and analyse them. You can’t succumb to any of your emotions blindly. They will need analysis – whether it is fear or happiness.

Each of these emotions has a powerful meaning and source. If you listen carefully, you’ll know where they are coming from. The best way to objectively analyse your fear is by asking:

• What is the real impact of this outcome?
• Probability of this happening objectively?
• How can I be prepared for such an outcome?

Instead of focusing on the negative effects – ask constructive questions to build a strategy on how to overcome fear

Be Curious about your fears

Curiosity is an extremely powerful source for self-improvement. You are an incredibly unique person whose emotions are shaped based on your life experiences. Each of your emotions has a back story. Sometimes, these stories are hugely valuable and some other times they are irrational.

Be curious about your fears. Understand and listen to them. They can be giving you valuable insights on how to proceed with life as you move ahead.

Identify the opportunity in your fears

None of your life’s occurrences is a waste. They present a challenge and an opportunity on the flip side. Fear makes you think of the worst outcomes and worry you. But, turn this question around. Ask

• What opportunities does this fear present?
• How can I use this to succeed in my goals?
• What can I do right now to subside fear and refocus back on my priorities?

The bottom line is that fear is a message and what you do about it are a choice and decision.

Be open to failures and negative outcomes

More often than not, failure is overrated. In our discussion on how to start after failure, we talk extensively about using this as feedback to move ahead. Each of these failures is a brilliant opportunity to set things. The most important thing is to ensure that you don’t waste a lot of time in the process.

Make the mistakes sooner and ensure that you have opportunities to repair and set things straight. The worst thing to happen is loss of time rather than anything else. As long as you are cautious and protective about time, then you’re in a great headway on how to overcome fear.

Take Small, incremental steps about your fear

Nothing worthwhile was ever easy. So is the process on how to overcome fear. It will take time and several experiments on dealing with fear. However, the key thing to keep in mind is to be in continuous progress.

Don’t stop and let this fear debilitate you and make you worry. Worry is one of the worst time wasters because it doesn’t give you any positive direction. Instead of falling into the trap of fear, think of small steps you can take to reduce this fear. It need not be everything, but every small step gives you more confidence about dealing with fear and focusing on what’s right.

Summary and Conclusion: How to overcome fear

In conclusion – all we want to say is: Fear is only an emotional signal. It has a lot of value to it. How to overcome fear is not a simple question that gets a one-word answer. It will involve multiple steps and you proactively find a way to use it to your advantage. It can be a messy trap if you fall into the distraction of fear. At the same time, it can be a very powerful ally if you can use it cleverly to achieve your goals.