I was recently talking to a friend about goals and plans we have for the future and the topic started heading towards fear. Which made me realize something, that over the years I have learned to understand what kind of fear I have and how to react to it.
I used to classify fear as one thing, “DON’T DO IT” because it’s your gut telling you you’re worse fears are about to happen. Now, I see that there’s many types of fears, and I don’t know how many there is but I have 3, the fear you feel when something bad is going to happen, the fear of going into the unknown and the fear of failing.
The fear of failing, I have learned to control and turn it into “What’s worse? Fear of failing or fear of not doing it and never knowing what could have been?” I use that fear to push through and always remind me myself, “you don’t live if you don’t try!”
My other fear, the fear of the unknown, the fear that shows up in the middle of the night before a big event, or a new project, a new idea, now THAT fear I learn to sit with it. That fear is familiar to me, it can last a few days or a few weeks and it only goes away when I make a decision. I learned to embrace it and see why that fear is there, does it have valid points? Should it even be there? Those are some of the questions I ask myself and then whatever I decide, I move forward.
How do you handle fear?