“Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.” - Karl Augustus Menninger
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.” - Mahatma Gandhi
What is holding you back? Whatever you answer, it will in many cases boil down to fear in some form.
Now, fear can be useful to keep yourself alive. But many times, especially if you live a life where you have the possibility to reading these words, fear is just a big obstacle in your path.
But what can you do about fear? How can you overcome it?
1. Face your fear to become stronger.
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
- Frank Herbert
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
Every time you face a fear you gain the 3 important qualities that Eleanor Roosevelt mentions above. And the next thing that comes along will be easier to handle.
And if you have to handle a big fear, whatever it may be, and later realize you actually survived it, many things in life you may have feared previously seems to shrink. Those fears become smaller. They might even disappear.
You might think to yourself that what you thought was a fear before wasn’t that much to be afraid of at all. Everything is relative. And every triumph, problem, fear and experience becomes bigger or smaller depending to what you compare it to.
But to gain a wider perspective of human experience and grow you really have to step up and face your fear.
2. Facing your fear can be surprisingly anticlimactic.
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.” - Mahatma Gandhi
What is holding you back? Whatever you answer, it will in many cases boil down to fear in some form.
Now, fear can be useful to keep yourself alive. But many times, especially if you live a life where you have the possibility to reading these words, fear is just a big obstacle in your path.
But what can you do about fear? How can you overcome it?
1. Face your fear to become stronger.
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
- Frank Herbert
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
Every time you face a fear you gain the 3 important qualities that Eleanor Roosevelt mentions above. And the next thing that comes along will be easier to handle.
And if you have to handle a big fear, whatever it may be, and later realize you actually survived it, many things in life you may have feared previously seems to shrink. Those fears become smaller. They might even disappear.
You might think to yourself that what you thought was a fear before wasn’t that much to be afraid of at all. Everything is relative. And every triumph, problem, fear and experience becomes bigger or smaller depending to what you compare it to.
But to gain a wider perspective of human experience and grow you really have to step up and face your fear.
2. Facing your fear can be surprisingly anticlimactic.
“When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
From a distance, things may seem very difficult and frightening. But when you actually step up and take action, many of us have been surprised of how the beard of that bully just comes off. Why? Let’s move on to the next tip…
From a distance, things may seem very difficult and frightening. But when you actually step up and take action, many of us have been surprised of how the beard of that bully just comes off. Why? Let’s move on to the next tip…