Bob Crawford Online

Fear is THE single biggest challenge you will face when it comes to achieving your dreams.

Many people step onto the path of self growth only to get stopped in their tracks by their fears. They begin the process of growing their lives into something that they desire, but they are held back by what are often ungrounded fears that have no real basis in their lives.

Why does fear rule our lives and become such a huge part of our personal drama?

How can you overcome fear in your life so that you can begin achieving your dreams!

What exactly is fear anyway?

These are all important questions that you must face if you are serious about manifesting the life of your dreams. You see, fear is a funny thing - it can literally paralyze you and stop you from reaching out and achieving something that you desire... But at the same time fear is useful, it keeps you physically safe from harm and prevents you from making what could be huge mistakes of judgment. So fear is a necessary emotion - you just need to learn to control it.

There are basically two types of fear

- Real physical fear - This type of fear keeps you safe from doing stupid things. Most fears of this type are learned from interacting with your environment. This type of fear keeps you from putting your hand on a hot stove, or stepping out into a busy street intersection.

- Imagined fear - This type of fear is simply our ego’s mechanism for keeping us in our comfort zone. These fears are often not about real immediate danger to yourself, rather they are usually about possible outcomes that may or may not come true. These are the fears that will stop you from reaching out and claiming your dreams.

What happens is that when you have to make a decision about something important you find that you are faced with many, many outcomes to that decision. Some of those outcomes are favorable and some are less favorable. Next you start focusing on one or more of the outcomes that you DON"T want. You begin focusing on it so intently that the possibility of that outcome coming true begins to seem real to you. This begins a downward spiral of fear and confusion that becomes hard to break out of.

But you can break free from the stranglehold of fear. You do it by taking a close look at what fear is and seeing where it is useful in your life and where it is not. Learn to see situations as they really are, and not as they appear to be when viewed through the lens of fear.


F.E.A.R. - False Evidence Appearing Real

You may have seen or read this acronym before, but have you really thought about it? Most of the time the things we fear aren't real at all. They are just false versions of reality that haven't come true yet.

As I was putting together some notes for this past week's talk show I found several other acronyms for the word 'fear' that I found to be very appropriate.

FEAR is:

• Failure Expected And Received
• False Emotions Appearing Real
• False Expectations About Reality
• False Expectations Appearing Real
• Finding Excuses and Reasons
• Future Events Appearing Real

As you can see, these acronyms for the word FEAR are all based on future events, events that may or may not come true. Before I show you how to overcome your fear, let's look at some common fears and see if they are real or imagined.

What are some common fears?

•fear of failure - imagined
•fear of fire - real
•fear of making a mistake - imagined
•fear of appearing foolish - imagined
•fear if the dark - imagined
•fear of snakes or other animals - real
•fear of letting someone down - imagined
•fear of dangerous places - real
•fear of rejection - imagined
•fear of commitment - imagined
•fear of being alone - imagined
•fear of not being taken care of - imagined

Do you get the idea? Fear comes in all flavors and varieties, some of them good for you and some of them not so good for you.

Here is one of the worst aspects of fear - when you have a goal or dream the fear of its opposite can keep you from reaching out for what you want.

•You want success but your fear of failure stops you.
•You want to lose weight but your fear stops you - fear of being hungry or of lack, being afraid to give up something comfortable.
•You want to quit smoking but your fear stops you - fear of pain, fear of withdrawal symptoms, fear of gaining weight.

I could go on and on. Fear stops you from doing what you want to do. Fear keeps your dreams just out of your reach.
What happens each time you think about achieving something new or making a change in your life? Do you, like most people, begin thinking about all the ways that things can go wrong?

The difference between people who achieve their dreams and those who don’t is that those who succeeded learned to overcome their fear. They learned to succeed in spite of their fear! And that’s what you need to do, if you are serious about living the life of your dreams...

There are several ways to cope with fear in your life. The two main schools of thought when it comes to dealing with fear are to either analyze it or ignore it.

You can spend hours, days, or even years trying to discover the root of your fear, trying to see where it comes from and trying to figure out whose fault it is!

Or you can take action and do the thing in spite of your fear. It's your choice!

Action conquers fear!!!

Action conquers fear - This is a powerful statement - because it is TRUE!. Make it a personal mantra - put it on your dream card, put it on your bathroom mirror, put it anywhere you can see it daily.

I know that most of my readers are familiar with the law of attraction. Did you notice that the word 'action' is inside of the word 'attrACTION'? That's a handy reminder that the key to your success is in your actions.

Face your fears and take a small action toward your dream. Surprise yourself with your results. Each attempt that you make gives you more power... more strength. Each time you try something new you gain power, gain confidence that will help you the next time you are faced with something new, something unknown.

Think about all the times in your life when you had to learn or try something new. How about learning to ride a bike, or learning to drive a car - were you scared your first time on the highway? Or driving at night? Or in a snowstorm?

You overcame that fear by doing it anyway, didn’t you?

Over and over again...

That’s part of the secret to success - doing the thing you fear, in spite of your fear! What happened is that your desire for something was so strong that it outweighed your fear. Sometimes your desire is so strong that you don’t even think about your fear.

If you want something badly enough you will find a way to do it. In spite of the fear.

If you find that you are still afraid to take the next step simply repeat 'Action conquers fear' several times and then go and do the thing. You will amaze yourself at how easy and painless it really was. Quite often your fears have created this huge wall built of objections and possible pain, and when you finally break through that wall by taking action you find yourself wondering where all that fear came from in the first place!

Take action today, in spite of your fear, and move one step closer to the life that you are dreaming of.


Peace.


Bob