Fear often prevents us from doing something, making an improvement, or taking on a new challenge. We use fear as an excuse, a reason to procrastinate further. Rather, we should use fear as a teacher instead. How can fear become your teacher? It is really quite incredible how this works.
Contemplate something that you want to do, that you are putting off. For example, lets say you want to run a marathon but you have some fears. So that has prevented you from even attempting the preparation. Fear could be your teacher in this example, let me detail. Instead of pushing off the commitment to a marathon because of fear, use the fear to teach you how. The formula is really rather simple.
- Make a list, or detail as best as you can what exactly you are afraid of.
- Using each one of these “fears,” come up with a course of action to resolve or mitigate them.
I read once that Bill Gates was afraid to start Micro-soft. Sort of funny, but his largest fear was that no one would take him seriously because he looked like a small kid. He did not look like a Harvard College student. He looked like he was about 14. He could have hid from that fear, but rather, his plan became to use Paul Allen to do the in person meetings. Paul Allen had a beard – he looked older, I guess.
Anyway, in the example of the marathon your fears might be a list like:
- I am not in shape right now and the preparation will be too hard
- I do not know what to eat how I should adjust my diet
- My family will not like the fact that I am running on weekends
- I will make a fool of myself and pass out in the middle of the race
- My old hip injury will cause me problems again
You can then take each one of these items and use them as a teaching tool. You can create a plan, or figure out who can help you with each step. What do you need to do, exactly, to overcome each of these fears? That will serve as your basis for getting started!
Guy Reams
