Get To Know Your Fears

A friend was suffering from massive anxiety after losing her job.

“What is frightening you most about that?” I asked her.

“Everything,” she responded.

With an unstable world economy, increasing unemployment, and other important issues and concerns near and far, many of us, driven by the unknown, are triggered into feeling vague, overwhelming fears.

Our minds do a fantastic job of running ahead of us and declaring doom and gloom.

We all have fears. Life doesn’t exist without them.

Leadership does not refrain from having them.

Business works to sell things by capitalizing on them.

Creativity reflects our efforts to overcome them.

[quote]FEAR wants us to Forget Everything And Run! [/quote]

But what would happen if we didn’t run?

What would it look like to handle fear differently?

Here are some ways to respond:

Expose it: Our natural inclination is always to eliminate something that we are afraid of. But if you can expose the fear for what it is, it begins to shrink.

Face it: To gain a deeper understanding of our fears we must courageously look it in the face.

Dissect it:  Analyze what the fear is about it. Try to identify exactly what you are dealing with.

Lean into it: Rather than running from fear, lean in and take yourself through it.

[quote]Fear originates in our desire to control of the future and in our need for assurances and safety.[/quote]

But as we know, the only real assurance we have is how we react.

Our fear offers us the opportunity to redirect our lives with new understanding and new perspectives.

Our fears are here to teach us is something.

[quote]When fear stops scaring us it will not stick around.[/quote]

Lead From Within: Fear will always be present in our lives. When we can lean in and stare it down, we can participate in working through it in spite of any transitory anxiety, fear, or discomfort.

For coaching, consulting, workshops and speaking. Please feel free to contact me.