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Sometime ago I book-marked an article that I thought was worth keeping.ย  The title: How To Conquer Fear by Geoffrey James.

Opening paragraph: โ€œFear is the enemy of success. Large rewards only result from taking comparably large risks. If youโ€™re ruled by fear, youโ€™ll never take enough risks and never achieve success you deserve.โ€œ

He has four key points:

Value Courage Over Security:ย  To conquer fear, you must consciously dethrone โ€œsecurityโ€ as the thing that you value most in your life and replace it with the active virtue of โ€œcourage.โ€ You must decide, once and for all, that itโ€™s more important for you to have the courage to do what you must to succeed, rather than to cling to the things that make you feel safe.

Differentiate Between Fear & Prudence:ย  Prudence is a good thing. Just make sure you arenโ€™t pretending to be prudentโ€“when youโ€™re just trying to avoid taking reasonable business risks, for instance, or putting yourself on the line to do whatโ€™s necessary.

Treat Fear as a Call to Action:ย  If what you fear is outside of your control (like an economic downturn), write down a specific plan of the exact steps that youโ€™ll take in order to adapt, if and when it happensโ€ฆ But if what you fear is inside your controlโ€“some action that youโ€™re afraid to take, that isโ€“take a few moments to prepare yourself, then do the thing thatโ€™s scaring you.

Reframe Fear Into Excitement:ย  Today, Iโ€™m actually really excited whenever I discover something that Iโ€™m afraid to do, because I know that something wonderful is going to happenโ€“provided I summon the courage to take action!

I have taken only my favourite snippets from Geoffreyโ€™s article.ย  You can read his whole post here.

So often we use our fears as excuses or crutches for not taking a risk. If you are completely happy in and with your life, not a problem. But if you want to redesign any part of your life, then you need to face your fears head on. There is enough in life we canโ€™t control; we must learn how to exorcise those demons that prevent us from achieving the life we want. And deserve.

I’m not saying it’s easy.ย  I still struggle with #1, but I’m getting better at the next 3 (even in #4 takes some serious self-talk!)

If youโ€™re wanting something in life different from what you currently have, hereโ€™s my challenge to start:ย  Work on wanting something better/different more than you fear maintaining what you currently have!