Fear

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Do you let fear rule your life, not the usual fear of spiders or height, but fear of not making enough money, of being hungry, of being ill or growing older? Do these types of fears lurk in the corner of your mind and rule your life? Bring the Fear Into the Light Fears have power over us not because they’re so horrible — even if some of them might be kinda bad — but because we allow them to hide in the darkness and intimidate us. We are paralyzed by these fears. As a great man once said, we have nothing to fear … but fear itself. The solution: shine some light on the fear. The answer to the problem of darkness has always been light. Bring the fear into the daylight, and it won’t be so powerful. Sure, the problem will still exist, and it may be a difficult problem. You’ll still have that debt to deal with — but it will simply be a matter of cutting back on some expenses so you can make bi-weekly payments on your debts, until they’re eliminated. That’s not so terrible when you think of it that way — a series of actions that needs to be taken. More on this in the next section. So you have to start by shining some light on your fear — and do this by sitting down and thinking about the problem. Write it out. Make a list. If it’s debt, write down all your debts and get the amounts owed. If it’s health, write down exactly what your health problems are, in detail. It may seem silly to write down problems, but this is how you shine the light on them: by taking a look at them. If you have problems even taking a look at the problem, ask yourself this question: what’s the worst thing that could happen?\ Often it’s not that bad. If it’s debt, the worst is that you’d have a large debt to pay off, and it would take a long time. Or maybe that you’d have to file for bankruptcy — which isn’t as bad as you might think. I’ve had relatives that filed for bankruptcy, and — gasp — they are living normal lives right now. If the worst-case scenario really is bad, seek help. Talk to someone about it — a friend or family member, or someone online even. This is another good way to shine some light on the problem — share it with someone else. Make a Plan of Action Once you’ve taken a look at the fear, make a plan to take action. This is how you overcome the fear — with action. When you take action on a problem, it’s not so bad — it’s just a series of steps you need to take to solve the problem. You aren’t paralyzed anymore when you start to take action. Make a simple plan, on a small sheet of paper, to solve the problem. What actions are needed? Make the steps actually actionable — instead of “cut back on spending”, write “make a list of expenses that can be eliminated” or something like that. Instead of “start paying off debts” write something like “set up automatic payment for Visa card”. The plan will kill the fear. It is taking something that is scary and unknown, and turning it into something concrete, solvable, doable. Then, take action. Take the first step on your action plan, and do it. Today if possible. This action will be the final nail in the coffin of your fear. Once you’re taking action on the problem, the fear stands no chance, because it’s no longer something lurking in the dark that you can’t conquer — it’s just a few items on your to-do list that you can knock off in less than an hour each. This article is brought to you thanks to Zen Habits These days there is plenty of fear to go around. I for one don't intend to let it rule my life, do you?