Reframing Fear
Many of us live with fear: fear of failing, fear of not being enough, fear of getting hurt in a relationship, fear of not pursuing our dreams. But all this fear may be robbing you of many great things in life because you’re not taking the chance in the first place. In small measures, fear keeps us safe. When our fears become irrational or overstated, they become emotional thugs, beating the boldness out of us and demanding we shrink our opportunities, relationships and life fully lived. We live in from fear when we make decisions out of fear, decide what we will do or not do out of fear. When we live from fear, we don’t risk, and when we don’t risk, we don’t grow. Here are few fear fallacies.
Failure
We think of mistakes as signs that we are flawed and should be ashamed. But it’s impossible to go through life without experiencing some kind of failure. Failing is how we grow and how we keep from making the those same mistakes again. Instead of looking at failure so negatively, we need to look at failure as the incredible learning experience that it is.
Expectations of Our Own and Others
Most people don’t live the life they want because of expectations, instead they end up feeling frustrated and disappointed. Holding other people to a high standard will result in a lot of feelings of disappointment. We hold ourselves to high standards and mistakenly believe others hold us to those standards, too.
Approval or Rather Disapproval
Without realizing it, you may be negatively impacting your effectiveness by seeking other’s approval. This is because you probably avoid doing things that are important to you, feel anxious about trying new things outside your comfort zone, and get stuck worrying about others might expect from you. We fear losing the approval of others, of displeasing them and thus losing our place, our sense of secure belonging. It’s important that you are true to yourself.
Fear That Others are Laughing at Us
We have a very misplaced idea that others are watching and judging, just waiting for an opportunity to mock our missteps and profit from our misadventures. But most of our friends and co-workers are as vulnerable and human as we are.
