“To me, Fearless is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.” Taylor Swift
We can unlock hope for the future and channel our inner voice through self-awareness. The first step is recognizing and acknowledging that it’s natural to be afraid.
Even the most fearless people in the world are afraid. The difference is that they know how to manage their intense emotions like fear.
If we can’t control our emotions, we can become trapped by our fears and feel like we’re living in a prison of our own making.
How do these ‘fearless’ people do that exactly? This post will explore the most critical factors that shape our outlook on fear.
Become a Master of Your Fears
It’s important to know that fear is an emotion. Understanding this is critical because our thoughts ultimately control our feelings.
We can reverse our negative thoughts to change how we feel. Instead of indulging in self-talk that seeks to sabotage us, we can focus on more hopeful and accurate thoughts.
Arianna Huffington once said, “We will never eliminate fear from our lives, but we can get to the point where our fears don’t stop us from daring to think new thoughts, try new things, take risks, fail, start again, and be happy.”
Build Your ‘Fearless’ Muscle
The day we take a chance and do something that scares us is the day we’ll stop fearing it. Additionally, the easier it becomes to step outside of our comfort zone in the future. Scientists believe that courage is like a muscle. Much like our physical body, our muscles get stronger when we exercise. The same is true when we practice embracing our fears. When we strengthen our ‘fearless’ muscles repeatedly, they grow. As a result, we become less afraid to take risks.
Our fears are still there, but they’re not leading our actions anymore. By exercising our fear muscle, we put ourselves back in charge of our life.
Embrace Your Weaknesses
Often, when we’re afraid of something, we don’t want to acknowledge it. Instead, we try to ignore it or push those feelings down. But those fears manifest in our life through other means. Those unrecognized manifestations of our fears are our weaknesses.
An example of this idea is that some people get angry when scared. These folks tend to lash out because they’re frightened and don’t know how to manage their fear.
A widespread fear is the fear of failure. We’re all afraid of failing. That’s why we’re so good at procrastinating. We delay, and we stall, and then delay some more. We do this in hopes that somehow our fear of failing will magically disappear.
Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. The only way out of feeling like this is to get uncomfortable and get started. Many people have had success by breaking down one big, scary task into several smaller ones. This method effectively disarms our fear of failure and makes it possible to create some momentum and get things done.
Be Hopeful
Award-winning psychologist Stephen Palmer once said, “We don’t give up because we encounter challenges. We give up when we lose hope that we can overcome them. Hope, more than perseverance, is the linchpin of success.”
A notable side-effect of hope is that it builds skills. The most remarkable of these skills is the power to clearly analyze whatever problem comes our way. Hope helps us take a moment and think about the why and how of our situation. Once we’ve thought about it (not worried about it), we can create a plan to overcome that obstacle. So, when we encounter a difficult situation, we’ll find a way through it if we stay hopeful.
An effective and practical method to strengthen hope is to practice saying positive mantras. Repeating self-talk that reinforces the idea that we can get through challenges creates mental resilience and confidence to rise above any obstacle.
Practicing these strategies is how we grow and learn to manage our fear. It’s also how to expand our comfort zone and try new things with buzzing excitement rather than mind-numbing fear.
