Dealing with Fear and Doubt

What are the two biggest roadblocks to achieving anything big?  In my opinion they are fear and doubt.  Fear causes us to shy away from doing the things we need to do in order to reach our goals.  Doubt causes us to second guess every decision we make.  These are internal factors and ones that we can do something about.

I have heard several descriptions of fear.  I have heard fear is false evidence appearing real as well as several others that I can't seem to remember right now.  I have also heard about the flight or fight response.  I was talking about the fight or flight response when it comes to being on stage with my homeschool co-op drama students last Tuesday.  I think that the whole concept of fight or flight and the release of adrenalin into our systems has been over simplified and misconstrued.  I love being on stage.  I have no fear of doing this and yet every time I am ready to get on stage I feel sick to my stomach.  My body releases adrenalin in order to give me extra energy to be vibrant on stage.  Athletes release adrenalin in order to help their bodies to perform better.  These times are not necessarily times of stress, but our subconscious minds send a signal for adrenalin to be released because we know that we need extra energy. I believe that this energy and clarity release has been confused as fear by this oversimplification.

There are two types of fear. There is the type of fear that causes the adrenalin to rush and creates extra energy.  This can be turned to something constructive and can be channeled into something productive.  If you channel that fear into action you will find that once engaged it will disappear.  This kind of fear is what brave people acknowledge and ignore.

There is another kind of fear.  This is the kind that stops us in our tracks and paralyzes us.  This is not necessarily a fear that causes that sick feeling in our stomach.  It often just turns our thoughts to ways we can avoid what we fear.  Its what makes us not approach someone or pick up the phone.  Its what makes us stick with the known and comfortable.  This kind of fear stops us from growth.  There is no accompanying energy release to prompt us to do something, anything.  There is just a sense of apathy and lack of motivation.

How do we overcome this kind of fear?  Once we recognize it for what it is then we can address the problem.  We can start asking what is it we fear.  Once we identify the fear and start thinking it through we begin to realize the result of confronting that fear will either have a great positive impact or if unsuccessful will really be no big deal.  For example, fear of rejection is something common that stops people from approaching someone new.  To address this you ask what will happen if this person rejects me or what I have to offer?  The answer is nothing, you just move on and go to the next person.  Once you can internalize this and face it you will find it quickly disappearing.

Doubt is usually a symptom of this kind of fear.  It causes you to ask lots of what if questions that can never be answered without following through on the what if.  It causes you to question your choices, what you have learned, and what you are capable of.  These doubts just feed into fear.  Doubt cause us to use other phrases such as I can't or it will never succeed.  Once again this is something you have to actively address by stopping negative thinking the second it begins.  If there is a legitimate question by all means seek out more information, but even then you are actively seeking a remedy to that doubt.

What can we conclude by this?  The only way to deal with fear and doubt is activity.  Address fear and doubt head on once you have proven to yourself that your fear and doubt have no validity then you are able to get out of your own way.