Fear is a common factor in all of our lives. You’ve felt it many times! Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of not being good enough, etc… all of these things can keep you down and locked in a pattern of comfort, repetition, and predictability.
But if your goal is big enough, and it means enough to you… if it’s important enough, nothing else will get in the way (including fear). When you MUST succeed excuses go out the window, sacrifice happens without a thought, and you’ll do whatever it takes!
I know that sounds good on paper and might be a little tough to wrap your mind around. To help you, here are my 5 favorite tips to leverage fear to your advantage!
5 Ways To Make Fear Your Biggest Motivator
1. Classify Your Goal
You have to determine if your goal is a MUST. What will you lose if you don’t achieve your goal? The easiest way to conceptualize this is to imagine yourself near the end of your life. You’re sitting in your favorite chair and thinking about the events of your life. Got it? Okay. Now imagine what your life would have been like if you didn’t achieve that goal. How did that affect things? Do you regret it? If at any moment, you can see yourself wondering “what if?” then that goal is most likely a MUST.
2. Know Your Go-To Excuses
Look, we all make excuses. One of the easiest things to do is to push our goals to the side to make room for the justification of our excuses. What excuses do you make the most? Is there not enough time? Is money short? Don’t have the adequate resources? Too busy? does all this sound familiar??? It should. The thing about excuses is that they create comfort and safety, but they will leave you stuck at point “A” (I promise)! But by making yourself keenly aware of the types of excuses you rely on, it will be much easier to dismiss them when you revert back and try to use them.
3. Shift Your Mindset Toward Growth
I’m always talking about mindset, and rightfully so; too often, people give up on their goals simply because they don’t believe they have what it takes to get there. Failure, disappointment, hitting a roadblock, coming to a dead end, etc… all of these things can easily make you reflect and conclude that you just don’t have the ability to succeed. But we are designed for adaptation! More than any other creature on this planet, you have the ability to learn from each experience. Use this unique strength to challenge your mind, and to learn more about who you are and what you’re capable of!
4. Learn To Welcome Pain
Pain is inevitable in life. Suffering, however, is a choice! Pain, when focused on, has the ability to help you refine the things you want or don’t want in life. This refers back to our ability to adapt. When you feel pain (setbacks, blocks, disappointments, failures, confusion, etc), learn from it. Why is this painful? How could it have been prevented? What does it mean? Ask these questions every time and you’ll keep your pain from becoming suffering. Pain sharpens even the dullest minds!
5. Expect Failure
I don’t care who you are; failure is coming! You will fail. It’s part of the growth process! They say that failure is the best teacher, and that’s because failure offers insights into inherent problems. Failure corrects processes. Failure strengthens your resilience against rejection. When you fail, take a moment to account for all the variables that led to that outcome. Learn from them and you’ll have an edge over everyone else!
The most successful people in the world use fear in their lives as a motivator. The key is to know that fear will happen… but that nothing will be scarier than the life that could result from knowingly not giving your goals and dreams every last bit of your focus and energy!
Remember, nothing is scarier than having lived a life full of regret and “what if”.
Here’s to conquering your fear one day at a time!
With all my ️,
Dr. Stephanie