In North America, Halloween is a huge celebration that comes with costumes, candies, and fun. It also gives us the opportunity to think about our fears and how they can control our lives. First, let’s define our fears.
Since our childhood, we all carry some fears. Over the years, through experiences, we’ve built more of them and conquered some. In the end, we always have some, and it is healthy, cause some of them are needed.
Rational fears are an expression of potential danger. They are based on real facts, but can also be amplified by our brain (fear of height, fear of fire, fear of dangerous animals). On the other hand, irrational fears are created, and those are the ones we are looking at here.
Your fears might hold you back, and now it’s time to take control of your life. Let’s check together which habit can keep you from being the best version of yourself. Most of the fears can be divided into four different types:
The Fear of Comparison
You always compare yourself to others in one or two ways. You can feel like people will judge you for your actions, so you prefer to stay inactive not to draw attention to you. You can also feel like others are better than you so, you prefer not to act because you believe that you wouldn’t be able to be better than them or just be as good as them.
Our tip: People will always judge you, but it’s up to you to let this affect you. Listen to others to grow but don’t let them stop you from trying.
The Fear of Unknown
Humans are creatures of habits. We can hardly go against it cause our brain is designed to extrapolate and imagine all the possible futures to assess the risks and survive. It’s the heritage of our animal instincts. Because your mind is making some imaginary projection of the future, you believe that the worst might happen, and it stops you. Generate a multitude of outcomes cannot guaranty that one of them will happen, and that might be the way to admit it: You cannot predict the unpredictable.
Our tip: The unknown is scary if you don’t embrace it. Always be prepared for the worst, but aim for the best outcome possible, while taking a new step on the path.
The Fear of Success & Failure
It is the most common fear in the whole world. Even if it can vary from one cultural background to another, this major fear can stop your life or launch you on a new step. Success is in almost everyone's mind, but only a few of us realize that even if we are dreaming about it, we are also scared to reach it. Our guts tell us that we should succeed, but deep down, we are afraid that it will change us, or that we will fail along the way. This fear influences your perception of yourself, of your value, your worth.
Our tip: If this fear controls you, you will get stuck at the same point your whole life. Just remember that success is only a failure that didn’t end as predicted. Believe in yourself and go for it!
The Fear of Time
In our modern age and society, everything goes fast, and we quickly feel overwhelmed by our endless to-do lists and, sometimes, we just give up. At this point, your brain creates a reason good enough to do nothing.
In fact, your decision is triggered by two possible fears (maybe both at the same time). In the first case, you are afraid of the amount of time that you will need to master or do what you want to achieve. The second example is linked to a relative notion of time. We believe that it’s too late to do, learn or achieve it.
Our tip: In either case, you should remember this: “As a human, we always over-estimate our capacity to achieve during a year, and we underestimate our capacity to get things done over a day.”
What is the Good Mindset?
To fight your fears, you have to be consistent in your attempt to win on them. You have to remember that failure is human and it’s one the most efficient paths to learn. As a baby, you failed a lot of time before you could finally walk. Now as an adult, you easily give up quickly on failure and potential risk. Just imagine for one minute, if you had done that as a baby. Imagine all the experiences that you would have missed if you had decided to give up on walking! Learn more about it on our Mindset post.
Now, it’s time to conquer your fears! We can bet with you that the future is full of exciting, extraordinary and amazing experiences for you! If you need more help and support, schedule a call with our team.