Fear is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful of negative emotions that will corrupt our success journey. We can literally psych ourselves out with fear and never achieve anything. And if we don’t learn to consciously control fear, it will subconsciously control us.
Fear is a primal instinct that is actually designed to serve us, rather than hinder us. We come wired with two fear mechanisms. One of them is designed to make us take massive action. The other is designed to make us think before we act.
We are essentially the same hunter gatherer human beings that roamed the world millions of years ago. Back then there big animals and predators that we needed to be on the look out for. If a sabre-tooth tiger came charging at us, our fear mechanism would jump into overdrive, giving us an adrenaline rush and make us run in order to not get harmed by the beast that was chasing us.
We still come wired with this mechanism. If you cross a road and see a car coming at you at high speed, do you stop and think “I wonder if that’s a Ford Taurus or a Chevy Caprice?”, “Does it have a V6 or V8 engine?” Of course not, you instinctively run to the other side as fast as you can.
In the modern day, we don’t encounter many “fight or flight” situations anymore, but the fear mechanism that gives us this rush is still waiting to be triggered. Some people go looking for opportunities to experience this fear just to get the high. They do things like bungee jumping, sky diving, extreme sports, taking drugs, being promiscuous.
For most of us, the second fear mechanism that makes us think before we act, compensates for the lack of fear that makes us run.
In extreme cases, people can suffer from agoraphobia, which is the fear of everything. People have literally locked themselves in their houses and never walked out for many years because they just have a fear of everything.
However for most people, this fear hovers around in the background and fosters negative feelings such as anxiety, depression, lack of self confidence and self worth because it prevents us from taking the actions that will get us closer to our goals.
If we don’t control or “manage” our fear, it will control us. We will NEVER have the courage to achieve our dreams. We will always be stuck in the rut of our comfort zones. And you know exactly where that road leads.
The first step to controlling your fear is becoming aware of it and when it rears its ugly head. I still feel nervous when I’m calling prospects on the telephone. It’s okay to feel it.
Here’s one of the most insightful lessons I’ve learned about controlling fear… If you’re feeling fear, it’s almost certain that thing or event that you’re fearing is NOT happening. I learned this from Eben Pagan, who’s better know as “David DeAngelo”, the dating guru.
One of the best acronyms I’ve heard for fear is:
False
Expectations
Appearing
Real
You can take control of fear by reducing the level of negativity you encounter everyday. There are a number of things that induce fear into our lives. One of those is the news. I once heard, for every 1 good news story, there are 13 bad news stories.
That’s absolutely not the case in real life, unless you’re a bad person. Generally there are many more things that happen to us that are good, than bad. Yet, the news is so skewed the other way that it’s not even real. The news companies know that bad news sells. The best thing you can do is switch it off. You won’t be missing out on much if you do.
Always think back to the reason why you’re building your network marketing business. Visualise yourself in to moment your dreams become real. This is a surefire way to eliminate the feeling of fear.
I write about how to craft your “WHY” in a future post.
To your MLM success,
Wayne Wu
Founder, The Profitable Networker
P.S. I would love your input! If you have an opinion that would contribute to this discussion, please leave me a comment below.
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