Secrets to Success
Secrets to Success
Eliminating fears a must
to achieve dreamsDo you ever find yourself making excuses for not achieving your goals? Do you have fears holding you back? Perhaps you avoid writing down your goals in order to avoid the reality of the fears that hold you back. Are your fears real or just an illusion?
If you have unfulfilled dreams you may be giving your fears more power than they deserve. I know this all too well because I've fallen prey to the same trap. Let's look at a way to help you smash those illusions and charge confidently into a new frontier of your life.
A metaphor many of my coaching clients find helpful when dealing with fear begins with a trip to Africa. Imagine you are on a safari and your guide has told you the locals believe there is a man-eating tiger in the area. One morning you wander from camp to enjoy a short walk, stopping by a beautiful waterfall. As you walk down the path you hear branches crack in the brush behind you. In a state of fear you assume the worst -- it's the tiger! But instead of turning to see what is behind, you start running in fear. The faster you run the louder the sound becomes and in your mind the bigger the tiger becomes. In a state of panic you reach a cliff and have nowhere to go. Your fear takes over and you run to the edge deciding it's better to jump rather than be eaten by the rogue tiger. Just before you jump, you turn your head to get a glance of your pursuer and see it's just a housecat!
What almost destroyed you? Was it real or imagined? Who gave that housecat the power of a man-eating tiger? Your imagination did. All you had to do is turn to face your fear when you heard the first branch crack. You had the power all along.
How many "illusions" in your life do you give power to? Illusions such as, "I'm too old, too young or too inexperienced." False beliefs spoken as "fact" by others like, "You can't do that, nobody has ever done that before!" Or "Why can't you just settle?"
When you're afraid to try something new or when you're fearful of following your dreams because people tell you "it's too big" -- stop, turn and look. Ask yourself, what am I afraid of? Then go ahead and imagine the worst-case scenario. Write down your greatest fear along with the goal it's keeping you from. Once you clearly identify your fear on paper you can now turn to face it instead of trying to ignore or run from it. Now you will have an accurate picture of what stands between you and your dream. After looking at the worst case scenario, if you can honestly say to yourself, "I could deal with that IF it happened," then it's time to move ahead.
Armed with this knowledge you can confidently develop a realistic plan for achieving your goals while avoiding as many pitfalls as possible. Once you know you can deal with the worst scenario, you'll see that there is no need for it to happen. With proper planning you can make this work!
Coaches Secret: Follow this simple process and you'll find an amazing thing happen. All the power the fear previously had is taken away. Your mind will stop focusing on the fear and will begin to seek out solutions. Remember this acronym for FEAR -- False Evidence Appearing Real -- and you will eliminate the most debilitating barrier to your success, illusions.
John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach
and chief operating officer of RPM Success Group. Reach
him at JPM@RPMsuccess.com or (888) 334-8151.