Either You Control Fear or Fear Controls You
If I could transfer just one idea from my thinking to your thinking it would be this: to truly understand fear.
You see, fear holds the majority of people back from doing certain things as we’ll see in a moment… but most people don’t truly understand fear and how rife it is in our daily lives.
I can’t remember how it happened exactly, but one day I started analyzing the reasons why people do and don’t do certain things… one answer just kept coming up time and time again: fear.
Frankly, fear rules the world.
Fear
Examples…
- FEAR of painful consequences if you speak the truth
- FEAR of losing your job if you don’t go to work
- FEAR of people asking for their money back if you offer a money back guarantee
- FEAR of being taken for every penny you’ve got if you ‘cheat’ on your wife and she finds out
- FEAR of being penniless if you leave your job and can’t get another one
- FEAR of getting a ‘no’ if you ask someone out
- FEAR of getting in trouble if you don’t go to school
- FEAR of being put in jail if you don’t pay your taxes
- FEAR of losing your job if you tell your boss what you really think
- FEAR of being looked down upon if people know how truly broke you are
- FEAR of standing out if you don’t dress like everyone else
- FEAR of going to hell if you don’t go to church
- FEAR of losing your money if you place a bet
- FEAR of being ‘scammed’ if something seems just too good to be true
- FEAR of paying too much if you don’t shop around for the best price
- FEAR of getting fat if you don’t go to the gym
- FEAR of getting another ‘no’ if you make that cold call
- FEAR of not having any ‘friends’ if you move abroad
- FEAR of being beaten up if you answer back to ‘tough-guys’
- FEAR of your boss shouting at you if you do things your way instead of his way
- FEAR of not being able to pay the rent if you try and switch jobs and it doesn’t work out
- FEAR of death if you speak out against a hardline dictatorship
- FEAR of investing in an unproven marketing method and losing your money
- FEAR of wasting your time by applying for a job that pays a few poxy grand more than you’re used to
- FEAR of not getting the job if you tell the truth in your job interview
…please note: these are just examples which came to my mind at the time of writing… if I put in more time and effort I’m confident I could list 100 examples without too much trouble.
Anyhow, the next time you’re thinking about why something has or hasn’t happened have a think about whether fear is the cause or not… it may very well be.
More importantly, understand this: either you control fear or fear controls you… make sure you’re in control.