How to Outsmart the Six Ghosts of Fear

Have you ever had indecision about something?

Did it lead to doubt?

We’ll all suffered at some point in our life and career about indecision and doubt. Are we doing the right thing? Going down the right path? What will others think?

INDECISION is the seedling of FEAR! Indecision crystalizes into DOUBT, the two blend and become FEAR! The “blending” process often is slow. This is one reason why these three enemies are so dangerous. They germinate and grow without their presence being observed.

Fear can be uncomfortable and crippling. But eliminating it would be the equivalent of taking down your home alarm system because it sometimes makes loud and irritating sounds.

Being fearless doesn’t mean eliminating fear. Being fearless means knowing how to leverage fear.

THE SIX BASIC FEARS

The fear of POVERTY
The fear of CRITICISM
The fear of ILL HEALTH
The fear of LOSS OF LOVE OF SOMEONE
The fear of OLD AGE
The fear of DEATH

Normal Fear is healthy.

Fear is hardwired in your brain, and for good reason: Neuroscientists have identified distinct networks that run from the depths of the limbic system all the way to the prefrontal cortex and back. When these networks are electrically or chemically stimulated, they produce fear, even in the absence of a fearful stimulus.

Feeling fear is neither abnormal nor a sign of weakness: The capacity to be afraid is part of normal brain function. In fact, a lack of fear may be a sign of serious brain damage.

1. THE FEAR OF POVERTY

There can be no compromise between POVERTY and RICHES!

The two roads that lead to poverty and riches travel in opposite directions. If you want riches, you must refuse to accept any circumstance that leads toward poverty. (The word “riches” is here used in its broadest sense, meaning financial, spiritual, mental and material estates).

The starting point of the path that leads to riches is DESIRE.

Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money, wishes for it.

Wishing will not bring riches.

But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsession, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.

2. THE FEAR OF CRITICISM

This fear is almost as universal as the fear of poverty, and its effects are just as fatal to personal achievement, mainly because this fear destroys initiative, and discourages the use of imagination.

Ever since you were small, someone has been telling you what you can’t do.

Your mother told you that you couldn’t walk down the middle of the street.
Your father told you that you couldn’t ride your bike without reflectors.
Your teachers told you that you couldn’t run in the hallway.

During life, there are hundreds of people who not only tell us what we cannot do, but what we can’t accomplish.

“You can’t be a chemist. You’re not analytical enough.”
“You can’t be a professional singer. You’re not attractive enough.”
“There is no way you’ll make it as a teacher. You’re not patient enough.”

“People refuse to take chances in business, because they fear the criticism which may follow if they fail. The fear of criticism, in such cases, is stronger than the DESIRE for success.”

Can you relate to this?

Here are some steps you can take to help you overcome this fear:

FORGET PERFECTION
CHANGE YOUR INNER DIALOGUE
AVOID PROCRASTINATING
CONSIDER WORST CASE SCENARIOS
MAINTAIN YOUR FOCUS
NEVER QUIT
IMPROVE YOUR SELF-CONFIDENCE

3. THE FEAR OF ILL HEALTH

Man fears ill health because of the terrible pictures which have been planted in his mind of what may happen if death should overtake him. He also fears it because of the economic toll which it may claim.

Understand that fear sells and you’re being manipulated.

Fear sells, and the media knows it. So it’s no surprise that every other headline is warning you about the “Secret Dangers Living In Your Cupboard” or the “Deadly Dangers Of Airplane Travel” or the “Cancer-Causing Toxins In [Pretty Much Everything.]”

Yes, there are real health risks out there that can be easily avoided. And why not do what you can to minimize your risks?

Did you know higher quality sleep can radically improve your health, productivity & happiness?

Here are 7 ways to improve health.

4. LOSS OF LOVE OF SOMEONE

The fear of the loss of love probably dates back to the stone age. The world war II generation didn’t show much love or affection, but that’s how they grew up. Today it’s quite different to openly say I LOVE YOU to someone.

Whenever there is a loss of something significant in our lives, we suffer grief.

When an intimate love relationship ends – whether we were married, living together with a partner or significant other, or committed to another as part of a couple – the separation can be overwhelmingly painful.

Why do some people rebound?

While others waste away?

Life is incredibly short. We don’t have forever to grieve. Until you have exhausted all of the options and configurations available, you would do well to move on, start a new life, change the scenery.

Rebound is good. Life rebounds and so should you.

5. OLD AGE

For many thousands of years, mankind has wondered when old age began. Mostly, it began about a week after puberty. In the Middle Ages, reaching age 21 was the goal. If you made it that far, you had a pretty good shot at living into your 60s. Of course, your teeth would have all rotted out and your eyesight would have been gone, but if you avoiding the plague and bloodletting, you’d have it made.

Beginning at the turn of the 20th century, life spans started steadily rising, from 45.7 years to 88 years, now. A lot of that rise was due to the decrease in infant mortality and the vast array of drugs that have been introduced to the market, which allowed more people to aspire to saying things like, “This getting old stuff sucks.”

It wasn’t until Boomers appeared on the planet that the concept of old age began to be threatened.

Boomers, in an effort to eliminate old age completely, invented Spanx, cosmetic surgery, Viagra, and the belief that they looked 10 years younger than they really were.

So the question was, when did old age really begin? It was confusing. Asking actually people resulted in differing answers:

5-year-olds: Old age begins at 13.
13-year-olds: Old age begins at 30.
30-year-olds: Old age begins at 50.
50-year-olds: Old age begins at 75.
75-year-olds: Never. And go away.

For some thought that old age may bring with it the fear of POVERTY.

As the saying goes, your only as old as you feel! Right?

6. DEATH

They say there are only two sure things in live TAXES and DEATH.

To some this is the cruelest of all the basic fears.

“The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else,” wrote Earnest Becker in his book, The Denial of Death. It’s a fear strong enough to compel us to force kale down our throats, run sweatily on a treadmill at 7am on a Monday morning.

Most people prefer not to think about death, much less plan for it. In a tech-crazed world, where time is commonly measured in 140 characters and 6-second sound bites, life would appear to be dissected into so many bite-sized morsels that discussion of death doesn’t even seem to fit into the equation.

For some it’s what will their legacy be?

Everyone must figure out their own way to handle the fear of death.

Some worry about going to hell…while others worry that they will get to heaven.

The greatest of all remedies for the fear of death is a BURNING DESIRE FOR ACHIEVEMENT, backed by useful service to others. A busy person seldom has time to think about dying.

He or she finds life too thrilling to worry about death. Sometimes the fear of death is closely associated with the Fear of Poverty, where one’s death would leave loved ones poverty-stricken. In other
cases, the fear of death is caused by illness and the consequent breaking down of physical body resistance.

OLD MAN WORRY

Worry is a state of mind based upon fear. It works slowly, but persistently.

Worry is a form of sustained fear caused by indecision.
Your state of mind can be controlled.
Indecision makes an unsettled mind.
Most individuals lack the willpower to reach decisions promptly, and to stand by them.
During periods of economic unrest (such as the world is experiencing), the individual is
handicapped, not alone by his inherent nature to be slow at reaching decisions, but he is influenced by the indecision of others around him who have created a state of “mass indecision.”

You may control your own mind, you have the power to feed it positive or negative thoughts, your choice. With this privilege goes also the responsibility of using it constructively.

You are the master of your fate just as surely as you have the power to control your own thoughts. You may influence, direct, and eventually control your own environment, making your life what you want and like it to be—or, you may neglect to exercise this privilege which is yours, to make your life to order, thus casting yourself upon the ocean sea of “Circumstance” where you will be tossed hither and yon, like a bobber on the waves of the ocean.

About Blair

Blair Evan Ball is a Social Media Coach and founder of Prepare1, a company that works with businesses, individuals and non-profits. He is a former executive with a Fortune 50 company, and his national division did $1Billion+ in sales annually.

Blair has written three e-books: Facebook for Business Made Easy, Facebook Pages for Business Made Easy, and WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy.

Blair also educates, trains entrepreneurs and business professionals how to amplify their brand, increase revenues, and raise more funds.

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