My daughter is not limited by the human condition. She doesn’t know she is human, and she hasn’t realized that we have limitations. It is scary, yet refreshing, watching her trying to leap from the bed (because she has not yet discovered gravity) or to scream at the top of her lungs, because no one has ever stopped talking to her because she was shouting, or to be comfortable in whatever she is wearing, because she has not experienced being snubbed for her fashion choice (or her mother’s fashion choice). One day she will learn fear, but I pray it will be good fear and not the kind of fear that paralyzes you from accomplishing what you would like to.
For the rest of us, here are ten things that will help us fight fear
1. Read – read self help, read inspiration, read fiction with positive stories, read biographies of people doing amazing things. Get your brain excited, give your brain the material to mirror these amazing things. Give your brain the food to realize that there is no need to fear.
2. Pray – Sometimes fear can be debilitating. These kinds of things need prayer. Pray against fear. Pray against the spirit of fear. Pray against the thoughts of fear.
3. Positive affirmations – The more we repeat things, the more we believe them, so make it a habit to repeat positive thoughts. Use the Bible as encouragement. Remind yourself that you can do all things through Christ. Or at least look in the mirror and tell yourself that nothing is impossible for you, and that you’re a creative idea machine, who can come up with ideas at any time to solve any problem.
4. Watch videos – Go online and watch videos of people accomplishing the “impossible.” Realize that Impossible is a stupid made-up word, and really whatever you want to accomplish, you can – even if it may not always end up exactly the way you thought it would. Ted is a great source of inspirational videos.
5. Create mini-goals – instead of saying you want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months, why not say you want to lose 2 pounds a week. two pounds a week seems much easier to accomplish, but when you do the calculation, you will actually exceed 20 pounds if you stay consistent.
6. Write down your fears – write down all the things you’re afraid of. Write down all the bad things that could happen. Write down all the things that are preventing you from accomplishing everything you want to accomplish. Then take a deep breath, crumple up the paper, burn it, trash it, whatever, and say goodbye.
7. Think of the last time you were afraid – When was the last time that you were so afraid of things going wrong? What happened? Did the extremely bad thing you envisioned would happen actually happen? and think of other times as well, did the bad things happen those other times as well? If not, then calm yourself down, and realize that you are stressing yourself unnecessarily.
8. Spend time with old people – Old people often have regrets of things they wish they had accomplished. Spend time with them. Learn from them. If you’re too afraid to do that thing now, just realize that time is so short, and one day you will be old, look back and regret that you hadn’t taken the chance today.
9. Spend time with people that get it – They say we are a combination of our closest friends. So if our friends spend time talking about their fears, and being afraid to do anything, then we will probably also be afraid, and never accomplish anything. But if we choose instead to spend time with people who get it – People who are excited to be creating challenging situations from them, people who are making lots of money from taking risks, there is no way that these things will not rub off on us.
10. Spend time with kids – Kids are always refreshing. They are not afraid to look stupid. Spend time with them and learn that it’s okay to look stupid. Learn the beauty of exploration, learn the beauty of being wrong, the beauty of asking questions, and the beauty of the lack of self-consciousness.
What are your other suggestions?
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