“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~Plato

Many people would say that fear is their worst enemy. That might be true; because fear can paralyze people from taking action and moving forward. It comes hiding in different shapes and forms- like fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of heights, fear of closed places, fear of success, and the list goes on and on. It is the main reason that most people live and die without achieving their dreams or even a part of them. It is the reason behind many failed marriages and broken relationships. And it is the reason why people fail – personally, professionally, socially or in any other arena in their lives.

Fear is really a monster that can eat you alive. In some extreme cases it turns to a mental illness called paranoia – which is defined by the Collins English Dictionary as “a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion.” The majority of us haven’t reached this extreme level, but we do struggle with fear and fearful thoughts every now and then.

To get a closer look on how powerful fear is, watch this video:

Fear has tremendous amounts of control over humans just as with animals. So wouldn’t it be great if we can leverage this power and use it to our benefit? The answer is yes it will be great and yes we can!

The key is to shift your perception and start looking at fear from a whole new perspective; a simple mind game that you play with yourself. That’s it.

Have you heard the saying “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” before? Since fear is your worst enemy, then you should keep it the closest. This means that you first have to know what your fear/fears are, understand them and employ them to work for you rather than letting them enslave you.

If you try to ignore your fears and pretend like they don’t exist, they will fire back big time. What if I told you: Do NOT think of a pink elephant. What happened in your mind? Have you NOT thought of it? You did, right? This happens all the time when you try to dictate on your mind what NOT to do – it goes and does the exact same think you are trying to avoid.

That’s why you should always focus on what you want and keep your eyes on the result/outcome that you want to get. The twist here is to make your fear of failure very strong so that instead of paralyzing you, it forces you to take action forward.

Here’s one simple, yet powerful technique that you can use right away to leverage the power of fear to work for you:

“Close your eyes and take several calm deep breaths. Visualize yourself 5, 10 or 20 years later all sad and lonely because you haven’t achieved any of your dreams or goals. Imagine the amount of pain and regret you’ll have and make it feel as real as possible. Now imagine that everything around you is disappearing one by one; furniture, buildings, trees, people etc. then you’re standing alone in the middle of an empty desert screaming for help, but no one answers! Suddenly you start drowning slowly in a sand whirlpool and you’re scared, helpless and hopeless. Now take a deep breath and open your eyes. Have a look around you. And be thankful that none of that has happened yet. Promise yourself to do whatever it takes to succeed.”

You have only one life time, so make it worthwhile. Don’t waste your time in fear and regret. Go out there and show the world what you’ve got. Try to add as much value as you can and seek to help as many people as you’re capable of. Eventually the law of reciprocity will work for you – you will start to see the fruits of the all good that you did and you’ll defiantly reap a hundredfold what you’ve ever sown.

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Photo: epSos .de

Has there been any fear in your life that kept you from achieving your important goals? Have you successfully overcome a major fear before? If yes, how did you do that?