HOW I STOPPED FEAR FROM CONTROLLING MY LIFE (AND YOU CAN TOO)

UNDERSTANDING FEAR:

Do you often let fear control your decisions? You are not alone. Everyone experiences this. I have also been through this, and in this blog, I will tell you one simple way to control your fear. I deliberately chose the word control because fear is an emotion, and as human beings, we feel a lot of emotions that cannot be overcome, but they can be managed or controlled in a way so that these emotions don’t affect our ability to make decisions. See, fear is not a bad thing. It is very natural. Everyone gets scared at some point in their life, either while making decisions or before beginning something new. But it becomes a problem when we let it take over our mind because then it is not us making decisions, it is our fear that does the decision-making part. And a decision taken from a place of fear always adds more problems to our lives. Everything in excess is bad, remember? And this is what we have to work on. So, allow me to give you one simple trick that you can use to manage not just fear but any emotion: anxiety, jealousy, anger, etc.

We can get scared for various reasons. It could be something as small as beginning a new job or giving a job interview, or something as large as surviving a trauma. Let me tell you my story briefly. As a child, I have always been someone who hesitated to take initiative. Back then, I didn’t realize why I behaved like that, but over the years, I saw a pattern, and I instantly knew that it was fear that was holding me back. As a child, I just reacted to every situation, not thinking once about how my one decision could impact my life. But now that I had realized this and I wanted to work on this because every time I got scared, I messed up something so beautiful that I couldn’t undo it. Fear is normal until it takes over your mind and ruins some of the beautiful things for you. You shouldn’t get scared so much that you end up messing up.

MY STORY:

But how does fear show up in real life? Let me tell you my story. I had to give a presentation before my class, and I was always scared of speaking in front of people; this time was no different. So, the moment I started, at the back of my mind, I just wanted to finish the presentation as soon as possible. My heart was racing, and my thoughts were scattered, and in my rush, I missed the important points that I had prepared, and forgot everything. Result? It was horrible. I felt so embarrassed, like the whole class had seen me fail. This is what I am talking about. You can’t let your fear control you. You should have the power to control your fear. If you continue getting so scared, then it will only pull you down. It will hold you back from reaching your full potential, and trust me, you don’t want to do this because it can put you in a lot of trouble. Take this from me. I have been through this and I have made this mistake, and I don’t want you to go through this.

THE SIMPLE TRICK — ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT:

After struggling with this for years, I discovered a simple and powerful technique — Acknowledge and Acceptance. Have you ever observed what exactly happens when we get scared? We freeze. It's like you get lost in another world and lose your mind to act in the right manner. Now, this is normal, but it is here that we need to pause for a moment and acknowledge that “okay, I am scared”. You need to acknowledge this first and accept that you are getting scared from a particular situation, and a part of you will tell you to take a step back, but that’s when you will calm yourself down and accept that you are scared and you don’t want to do this because of your fear. Talk to yourself. Say things like “I am scared, I don’t want to do this, but I will do it because it is for my highest good and I will do well”. Then take a deep breath and go ahead. Always make sure to give yourself a good 5 minutes to do this every time you get scared. And don’t expect that the fear will not return. It's an emotion, it will come, but it's in your hands to manage it and not let it control you.

If you don’t take this step, then it is highly likely that you will stay in the same position. Fear will make you take decisions that are not good for you, and you will regret that later on in life. So, follow my advice and you will never be disappointed. The ball is in your court now.

Lastly, if nobody has told you this, I will: You are already doing a great job, that’s why you are reading this article. And don’t take everything seriously. You have one life, make the best out of it. Always remember we are all work in progress — nobody is perfect, so it's okay to be imperfect. Work on yourself and always go behind achieving your goals. Don’t let these emotions stop you from achieving what you can. All the best!!!