How to Overcome Fear
FEAR – It keeps us from moving forward… stopping us dead in our tracks. So the question becomes how to overcome fear and stop it from getting us what we really want in our lives?
Take the following statement, and make a big sign – post it where you can see it.
Your power and your ability to create what you want in your life…
ENDS where your fear begins.
Keep in mind, I am a sales trainer who must teach in front of LARGE groups of people. I have had to overcome two of the biggest fears that stop a lot of people from attaining the success that they want out of their life.
My two biggest fears were, public speaking and cold calling. In fact I still get a little bit nervous when I speak in front of large groups. When I first started training I couldn’t speak in front of 20 people, never mind 200! My breathing would get shallow, I would run out of breath.
Cold Calling… my fear was so great that I hated cold calling, I mean I hated it. I used to find any reason to not cold call… I always had something much more pressing to do. So, this article has special meaning for me. I would like to share with you one very effective visualization technique for overcoming fear.
So let’s look at it from the view point of a very common scenario.
Nancy has a fear of public speaking. Standing backstage, she knows that logically, there is nothing to be afraid of. She has rehearsed this speech a thousand times. Still she’s nervous. She thinks to herself, “There’s so many people out there, what if someone doesn’t like me!”
The host introduces Nancy with a wonderful bio and calls Nancy to the stage. She walks to the podium during the applause and when she gets there… her mind goes blank. Her mouth dries up and she begins to tremble and sweat. She’s almost sure that the first three rows can hear her heart pounding.
As she begins her speech, she looks around at the crowd and notices a frowning man, then a woman who seems distracted, and then two people in a conversation who are not even listening to her at all! Nancy thinks ,”Oh, I knew they wouldn’t like me”, and becomes even more nervous…
Stop right there! This is how fear paralyses you! Nancy anticipated her audiences reactions and then soon found evidence to support her belief.
This is true whether you are cold calling, asking for your money back on a bad purchase or public speaking.
Anticipation lives in our imagination. It’s not real. You can choose what to imagine. If you want to overcome fear, begin to imagine the absolute worse thing that could happen if your fear became real.
Before hitting the stage, Nancy imagines the whole crowd going nuts and jumping up and down, thumping their chests like apes. As soon as they see Nancy they go crazy and attack her on the stage. Their throwing banana’s at her and she is covered in food! One of the apes grabs her and puts her into a head lock and starts giving her a “noogie”. And as if things couldn’t get any worse… the stage lighting falls down and the lights go out.
Does this all sound rather silly?
Yes I know it does, but I can GUARENTEE you one thing – your fear will be gone.
By visualizing the absolute worst thing that can happen by confronting your fear – it will melt away. Because you will soon realize just how rediculous it is!
Next time you have a fear over something, try this simple, easy to use technique. You will be amazed at how effective this little exercise is in helping you control your fear.
