How To Deal With Anxiety and Fear

We all have been confronted with fearful predicaments or perhaps options at some point in this life – some people a lot more than others. Anxiety can easily cripple us and take away our self confidence and make us question our own capability and durability. In the long run it will rob us of achieving our goals and success.
Paulo Coelho said, “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” He, like so many other successful people, knew that fear is a very important inhibiting factor in our success and achievement and overcoming anxiety and fear is ultimately extremely important for personal growth. If our aim is achieving greatness in this life, we need to be able to deal with anxiety and fear.
Nevertheless, it is challenging to deal with anxiety, therefore below is four ideas which may help you getting over your anxiety and help you succeed in your goals:

1. Contemplate the Results
We grow to be so anxious and fearful that we become weighed down by fear and do not see the picture clearly. We need to ask ourselves: What is the worst case scenario if this goes all wrong? Will I die? Will I starve to death? Will I be rejected, laughed at or scorned – and then what – will that cause my death – surely not! The worst case scenario may not be as bad as we first foresee because of our lack of clear analysis of the results if it all goes wrong.

2. Tackle the bull by the horns with all the facts as your shield
The simplest way to cope with anxiety is to delve right in. If we have the full facts and information about a situation which scares us, we are half way there – the other half is taken care by tackling the fear and anxiety head on. The longer it is put off, the worse the fear will become. Do it now.

3. Get some help
There is a myriad of people and resources out there to help us deal with anxiety and fear. People we can ask in the form of family or friends, or professionals like coaches and counsellors. The internet is a great resource of often free resources to help us deal with our anxiety. Others hold the key of objectivity and might shed light on another angle of our anxiety which will make it less fearful, and a resource might provide excellent knowledge and facts which we can use to fight the anxiety.
Networking with support groups and people who are facing the same problem can be great help in the fact that you are going into this fight knowing that you are not alone.

4. Celebrate the Reward
We fear change and are anxious about situations about which we do not have knowledge. That is all there is to anxiety and fear – the fear of the unknown. When we look past that – towards our reward if we conquer the anxiety, it will motivate us even more to overcome anxiety and be driven to achieve success. Ask yourself, “What is the prize? What will I achieve by overcoming this anxiety? What have I got to lose? “In the end the benefits outweigh the scariness.

Anxiety and fear should not be crippling your efforts towards success and achievement. It should be an obstacle that you can overcome by learning to deal with anxiety and applying the tips above.