Fear Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Possibility Change

How to Breakthrough Ten Common Fears

Fear can be defined as an anxious feeling, caused by our anticipation of imagined, stories, events and experiences. Most of our fears are about the future.

When I took speech in college, I was excited and eager to learn. I’ve always been social and outgoing and I’ve lived a challenging and adventurous life. I thought my stories would interest and help others. I was ready to share. The first time I stood up in front of the class, I was anxious and nervous. After about five minutes, I couldn’t go on. In front of everyone, my voice cracked and I began to cry. I quickly returned to my seat. I thought I would die from embarrassment.

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How to Dream Bigger in Spite of Fear

By Amy Clover / 20 Comments

In July of 2012, I decided I wasn’t dreaming big enough. I attended a conference full of people doing amazing things for themselves, for charity, for their families… And I felt an incredible sense of inadequacy. Inadequate because what I felt inside wasn’t matching the actions of my outsides, and all these amazing people I was meeting were showing me that it could be done. My heart was overflowing with emotion, compassion and eagerness; I was just so scared to harness it for fear of rejection or failure.

In July, I decided to stop letting fear dictate my inaction, and instead, I began to let it fuel me to take more action.

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My Victory Over Fear

By Gary Stokes / 24 Comments

I was the recipient of some bullying as a skinny young kid. One older boy in my neighborhood entertained himself with me occasionally by trapping me in our garage and threatening to beat me up if I tried to get out. Later, tougher kids would chase me home from school, I wasn’t actually hurt very much, but I became afraid of being beat up.

Even though I became an athlete in junior high school, the fear of being beat up persisted.

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5 Reasons You’re Afraid of Change

By Jake O’Callahan / 24 Comments

We recognize that change can be good for us. It’s obvious that quitting smoking, losing weight or developing the running habit will improve our life’s.

Yet we fail at change over and over again. Why? One reason is you’re doing it wrong. You’re practicing the deadly sins of change.

But another reason runs deeper. You’re afraid to change. You procrastinate because deep down, you’re scared to take the plunge, even if it leads to a better life.

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Taking the Leap

By Steve Bloom / 14 Comments

It is only 315 miles away, but it feels like a million. At least that’s what I kept telling myself as I drove down the interstate road connecting the place I grew up to the place I’d soon be calling my new home. That was about eight years ago and I still consider it one of the best decisions of my life.

My decision to move was easy; I’d been thinking about moving to Minneapolis for years. But putting my desire into action was really difficult. My biggest hurdle was internal. I’d never lived anywhere else before and Minneapolis was a much larger city than I was used to living in. Of course, I had other difficulties too. Where would I find a job, where will I live and how will I get my stuff there?

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Harnessing the Power of Fear

By Gail Brenner / 27 Comments

“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” ~ Henry Miller

Fear can be so incredibly powerful. Have you noticed? It makes us doubt our gifts, squash our creativity, and leave our dreams unfulfilled. If you ask me, that’s no way to live.

I have been studying fear for years, and here is what I have learned. You can’t beat it, overcome it, ignore it, suppress it, or deny it. Push fear away or pretend it doesn’t exist, and all you get is more of the familiar effects of fear – limitation, confusion, and disappointment in yourself.

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Facing Up to Your Fears

By Mark Harrison / 7 Comments

We usually feel fear when we get frustrated, when our self-esteem is threatened, or when we feel pressured to perform beyond our perceived capability. Unhealthy fear is debilitating; healthy fear is mobilizing. But no matter what kind of fear you experience, it requires your immediate attention, or you risk cowering behind your full potential for the rest of your life. Read on for some tips on facing up to your fears.

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Overcoming Fear and Nervousness

By Nate Damm / 11 Comments

We all know of certain situations in life that make us nervous. No matter how we prepare for them we always find ourselves becoming anxious and stressed out. These situations could be anything from going to the doctor’s office to having a meeting with your boss at work. In this article I want to discuss something known as a ‘comfort challenge’ and how this amazing strategy can help you overcome your worst fears and insecurities.

Here’s a fact that I’ve come to realize in my own life: If you want to become comfortable in situations that usually make you nervous, then you need to deal with some serious discomfort for a while.

In other words, putting yourself directly into situations that make you extremely uncomfortable is the only way to truly get over them and make any progress towards overcoming your nervousness, worry and stress. In today’s society where everyone wants the quickest and easiest fix possible, this idea doesn’t usually flourish. Avoidance of the problem(s) usually requires the least effort, so it makes it seem like the top choice. The problem with this way of doing things is that it sets a very bad precedent for the rest of your life and the other uncomfortable situations that will come in the future (and yes, they will come).

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Facing the Fear of Not Enough

By Meg Ward / 11 Comments

It’s hard to be generous when you feel you don’t have enough. The fear of running out is deep, insidious and ingrained; and it presents itself in many guises. Giving in to this fear is to avoid risk, to burden yourself with precautionary excess and to restrict your enjoyment of life itself. It’s time to change your mindset.

On a two-day, 850-mile drive between Austria and Wales, I found myself faced with a traffic jam leading up to a lane closure about a mile ahead. One lane of traffic was almost at a standstill as the other crept steadily ahead, filtering into the first at the last possible moment. For once, I took the bull by the horns and stayed in the moving lane. I crept guiltily past a few cars but, afraid of running out of time and space, slunk back into the slow lane with plenty of room to spare.

‘That’s you all over’, said my fella, ‘you’re always afraid of running out’.

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How to Overcome Fear & Let Your Creativity Flourish

By Karl Staib / 16 Comments

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” – Sven Goran Eriksson

When you are happy you are confident, and you make choices that give you a better chance at success. When you procrastinate and resist change, that’s fear taking over.

It’s difficult to pull up that creativity anchor and let the “happy you” set sail.

Your fears are just trying to protect you from emotional pain. It’s self-preservation.

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Knowledge Plus Action Minus Fear

By Hulbert Lee / 9 Comments

Anything in the world is possible. But there is always one thing that stops us from doing it: fear. This can be the fear of starting a new business, the fear of public speaking, or even just the fear of something unknown. Fear often happens when part of us tells us to go for it, and another part of us tell us to be careful of the consequences. Feeling the effects of these consequences can be enough to stop us from taking action all together. But one thing that cancels out all fear is having knowledge of what you’re going up against and then taking action.

For example, when I was younger, one thing that I was always afraid of was math. In middle school, I loved to being creative. I was a person who thought spontaneous and did things on the fly. I remember I got an A in English class for making a Hobbit board game out of Play-Doh – an experiment we did for our final project. But when high school came, it was time to be more serious, and the first serious math class I had was algebra. Although this may have been a very easy subject for many people at the time, I struggled in it.

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