When you experience fear, it is likely not at all important for you to know what fear is and how it happened. You simply feel caught – frozen in time – unable to act – stuck! The stress response has kicked in manifesting in one of three ways Flee, Fight or Freeze and you are no longer in control. Overcoming fear is your priority.
Your response to stress is your body’s alarm system while the experience of fear is how you interpret the stress response. Your awareness of fear is what enables you to make a choice and it’s in the moment of decision “to overcome fear”, that new possibilities arise and opportunity for something different emerges. Once clear and free of fear and the hormones that pulse through your system, you can reflect and learn from your experience. So, how do you overcome fear when you are in the middle of it?
5 Simple Steps to Overcome Fear
- Stop Action and Clear – whatever you are doing in the moment of fear – STOP. Ground yourself in the here and now by connecting with your feet and taking a deep breath. Slowing the exhalation down by half the speed. Repeat the deep breathing 3 times or more until you feel you have regained control.
- Enlist Passion – Get in touch with desire and connect to your values – what is important to you. What do you want to create. What are you passionate about? Passion powers performance…what is it you feel emotionally charged to do? What do you want to see realized?
- Envision and Expect – A vision for yourself and your future, provides a focus. The clearer the vision, the more detailed and real, the more you will believe in it and in your ability to attain it. The more aligned with your values, the stronger your belief and the clearer your expectations.
- Take Inspired Action – Small deliberate steps that take you in the direction of your goal build momentum. To succeed you must sustain focus and follow through with consistent action. Acknowledging achievements energizes and renews commitment and helps sustain focus on your dream vision. Losing focus, being distracted or discouraged are challenges and threats to success.
- Persistence – Determined to succeed you will never give up! Committed, your vision becomes clearer with the completion of every action. Results provide a feedback mechanism to help you make adjustments as you go.
These five important steps can help you overcome fear and move into intentional action.
A professional partnership between you and a coach will accelerate your personal and professional growth and help you learn to discern whether the fear triggers that evoked the stress response are a real threat or simply F.alse E.vidence. A.ppearing R.eal. In the process you learn to get better and better at responding rather than reacting and taking action that gets you the results you want.
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt
About Julia von Flotow
