Fear Is Nothing To Be Afraid Of!

What do you do when fear shows up? Do you hide under the covers of life, shivering as you anxiously wait for the moment to pass or do you stand up with a confident smile and embrace it?

Your answer to this simple question will have a considerable impact on the level of freedom, excitement and empowerment you experience on a daily basis. Whatever your response, the thing to remember is that your fears are nothing to be afraid of!

What is Fear?

The Oxford dictionary defines fear as "an unpleasant emotion caused by the expectation of pain". The thing to note here is that the emotion of fear is caused by the 'expectation' of pain rather than the actual 'experience' of pain. There is no requirement that our fears be based on any form of rational or objective thought. In fact, it's entirely possible that the fears that exist in our lives are based purely on anticipated scenarios that may never actually transpire. The problem is however, that we live and act as if these scenarios are constantly replaying in our lives.

False Evidence that Appears Real.

One of my favourite definitions of fear is "False Evidence that Appears Real". In today's modern society we are conditioned to be fearful of just about everything. We fear failure, yet also fear success. We fear being lonely, yet fear being truly loved. We fear restrictions on our freedom to speak, yet we fear speaking out.

You are not Alone.

I think one of the big things to consider about fear is that you are not alone. We all experience fear. It's a very natural part of being human. It's not fear itself that's the problem, it's what we actually do with the fear when it enters our lives. Channelled effectively, fear can be a great catalyst for change and a tool for reclaiming your personal power. At the other extreme, avoiding fear will paralyse your life force.

Physical Symptoms of Fear.

The physical symptoms that we experience as a result of fear are really not as frightening as many of us make out. Some typical fear symptoms include the tightening of the chest and throat, muscle weakness, sweaty palms, energy depletion, a dry mouth and breathlessness. What, no loss of limbs or physical torture? In all seriousness, when you really think about it, the physical symptoms of fear are hardly anything to be afraid of.

Overcoming Your Fear.

One of the best ways to overcome your fears is to actually show up in spite of them. An old personal fear of mine was speaking in public. For some strange reason it terrified me and it was made all the worse by the fact that I avoided it as much as I could. As it happens, through the course of a seminar business I was involved with a couple of years ago, I had to introduce a speaker in front of an audience of around 300 people. My brief speech started well, but then all of a sudden my fears got the better of me. I lost my flow and stood speechless on stage for around 15 seconds (though it felt like a life time!) trying to remember my position.

This experience signalled to me that it was time to face my fear because I never wanted to be in a situation where I felt uncomfortable talking to a group of people again. I decided to join a very supportive public speaking club that meets on a weekly basis. I disciplined myself to show up every week in spite of my fears. Now I not only love public speaking but I get paid to do it as well!

Calculate the Costs!

What has fear cost you in your lifetime already? How many relationships have you let slip by? How many job opportunities have you not applied for? How many business ideas have you turned your back on simply because of the fact that you let your fears get the better of you?

Never in your life has there been a better time to confront your fears. Now is the time to stop being afraid of them. Meet them, greet them and then channel that energy into creating a life you can be proud of!

Damien Senn is a Life and Business Coach as well as a fully qualified Chartered Accountant. He helps professionals, artists and entrepreneurs create compelling futures.

He is the author of the 'Senn-Sational Success Journal' and has developed his own coaching model called the 'Senn-Sational Success System'.

For your free life coaching tool '101 things to do before you die', please click the following link:

http://www.senn-sational.com/freeresources.htm

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Coaching Information:

Related Articles

If What You Are Doing Is Not Working Change Your Approach
And ironically the more we worry about it, the more tense we getand the more likely we are to say something stupid.Let us a take a look at some remedies:1 Learn to relax when you feel under pressure.
Dare To Be Inconsistent, Lopsided, And Totally Courageous
I was talking to one of my coaching clients and she was talking about not being able to stay with a meditation practice, so she gave up meditating altogether. "I'm either gung ho all the way or I don't show up at all," she said in disgust.
Great Advice
It never ceases to amaze me that every time I give a speech, do a seminar, or talk with people one-on-one, I get inundated with questions seeking the almighty answers to all that ails them. However, when I press them to come up with an answer to their own situation, they usually respond by offering their own solution right back to me.
Could You and Your Business Benefit from a Business Coach or a Consultant?
The surprising answer is "probably". Most individuals don't realize that a certified business coach or business consultant can add enormously to their home based or more traditional type business.
Mentors and Coaches: How to Find a Great Mentor
A career coach or mentor is a person who can guide you with the benefit of their experience. He or she may be someone more senior from within your organisation or someone external to your organisation who has been successful in the field or skills you want to develop.
Coaching Skills
IntroductionThe question for leaders in organizations today is how do we go about unleashing motivation, facilitating idea creation, promoting information flow and go beyond being Number One? How do we distance ourselves from our competitors? We cannot relax and take our success for granted. Our competitors are fierce and anxious to take back market share, produce the next blockbuster product, or invent some new technology to better serve customers.
Freedom for All; Is it Possible?
Freedom for all species and people, and freedom of stress; is it possible? Could the Internet be a tool to getting there?Freedom, what is it? I am an Internet writer whose job is to write about the Internet. Does that mean I am locked into this one area? Am I allowed to write about other things? Well today I am going to test out my supposed freedom, by writing about freedom.
Building a Strong Coaching Practice
As a person who has been around the coaching profession for a number of years, I wish I could say that my practice is full right now. But the fact is that I've been pursuing TV gigs in the last few years and haven't put much emphasis on building my individual coaching practice.
Attitude is Contagious - Would Anybody Want Yours?
Are you using the Life Potential you have been given? Or are you just existing?We have all inherited standards, traits, habits, perceptions, and expectations based on what our parents, teachers, and peers taught us. We have allowed these to grow as a result of whatever we then learned as adults, and they continue to grow with whatever we feed our minds.
Coaching May Be For You
Are you looking for someone who will hold you accountable to achieving your goals? Career coaching and mentoring may be what you need to accomplish what you really want in your career. Your friends and family certainly love you and want the best for you, but they can't always make the time to devote the necessary hours you may need to achieve your objectives and goals.
Expectations Can Get In Our Way
There are times when we truly look forward to something just as there are times when we totally dread something. What is the difference between anticipation with joy and anticipation with anxiety? Where and how does that expectation actually take place? If we think about it, the expectations take place in our minds.
3 Tips for a Great Summer - Developing Life & Business While Having a Blast
As the last day of school arrives I feel the same tendency I had as a child..
HR Professional in New Avtaar: HR as a Coach and Mentor
IntroductionThese days in corporate sector, everybody is talking about the role of HR professional as a coach and mentor. People are exited as well as confused.
Personal Development Profiles
Personal development profiles, also known as personality profiles, are a tool I frequently use before starting a course of coaching with a client. The client answers a series of questions about preferred behaviour styles and their responses generate a report which outlines their strengths, areas for improvement, blind spots, their contribution to the team, ways they could improve their communication and how to deal with challenging people.
Nothing is left to Chance
You are going to meet a very important client for lunch. What do you do? If you are anything like Anna the first job is to ensure the outside you is perfect, well dressed, matching clothes, clean shoes, washed in your favourite soaps, perfume.
Control, Helplessness, and Love
During my 35 years of counseling individuals, couples, families and business partners, I have discovered that an important purpose of our controlling behavior in our relationships is to avoid the feeling of helplessness. One of the hardest feelings to feel is helplessness.
Are You Addicted To Your Activities?
Activities - such as sports, creative projects, reading, work, TV, meditation - can be a wonderful way to relax, express yourself, or connect to yourself. Or they can be an addiction.
Do You Ever Give Up Coaching Employees?
In principle, we don't want to give up coaching employees. We want to believe that we can eventually make a difference.
Difficult Challenges? -- What If?
Sometimes life can seem like one long series of unsolvable problems. I know there have been times when I would much rather find something else to do and quit whatever I was doing simply because it was too much trouble to continue.
Coaches, Do You Make These 7 Deadly Cash Flow Mistakes in Your Practice?
Managing cash flow is every small business owner's most important function. Avoid these seven deadly mistakes to make sure you aren't creating cash flow problems in your coaching practice.