4 Steps to Conquering our Fears
Fear can be debilitating. It can keep us up at night and block our ability to experience joy and peace. Fear can be helpful if we face a dangerous situation and need to fight or flee, but not in everyday life.
I have an acronym for F.E.A.R.
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
So many times in our life we allow fear to run our lives and their is not sufficient evidence for its existence. Here are some common areas that can cause fear:
- Future.
- Health.
- Leadership changes.
- Difficult conversations with family, co-workers and friends to resolve issues.
- World wide disasters.
- Failure.
- Career changes.
- Safety of our Family.
Many times we associate fear in these areas because of past history and negative experiences. Or the voice of a scoffer or critic can sway us towards doubt or fear. I know we have heard that "history repeats itself". But actually the Spanish-American philosopher, George Santayana actually said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". That's it! We need to remember and learn from our past mistakes and the mistakes of others but we do not have to repeat them. In fact - if we do learn from our past failures we are prepared to conquer our challenges when they arise.
I like to overcome fear with four powerful approaches:
- Look into my past and see what lessons I have learned from my past mistakes. For my large mistakes I keep a "Disaster Report" in my journal that contains the insights and lessons I learned in my past failure.
- Pray and seeks God's guidance. I find He is very helpful in helping me to attack my fear with faith and many times he assists in producing the solution. Here is one of my favorite fear fighting Scriptures: "for God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and love and a self-control." 2Timothy 1:7 One translation says: "power, love and a sound mind". My recommendation is when fear strikes we confront it with faith. As we confront fear we remove it's debilitating properties. Then we can address our challenges with power, love and a sound mind for the greatest possible outcome.
- Seek the counsel of others. Add the expertise of others to your situation.
- Make decisions and move forward. Faith overcomes fear when we combine it with action.
Let's disable our fears, be people of faith and move forward,
Coach Greg