How to Overcome Your Fears

Scenario: "Dude, my fears of certain things will never change. Ahh!" One of the biggest crimes in business = untapped potential. Sally B. has all the tools necessary to build a kick-butt business.

1. She's super smart about her industry.
2. She's passionate about what she does.
3. She's super awesome when you meet her.

Yet, what stops her from building a rockin' business: Fear.

• Fear of the unknown.
• Fear of success.
• Fear of imperfection.

So what does she do? Nothing. She stays being who she is. The world passes her by. If you're gunning to overcome failures, start confronting your fears like a badass. We'll explain.

How Fear Sucks You Down

Your brain houses a small compartment that resides your fears. You've added to the compartment through your "sucky" life experiences. A negative association to a certain experience creates the fears. For instance:

• If a dog bit you when you were 5, you started harboring a fear of dogs.
• If a teacher crushed your spirits when you gave a speech, you started dreading public speaking.
• If some certain bastards derided your accomplishments after you kicked some booty, you started fearing success.

Your subconscious brain drives you to avoid those experiences -- in the future, again. At all costs.

What to Rid Your Brain

Think back to the fear compartment that's housed in your brain above. It's called the amygdala. If you crush that sucka, you'll likely walk up to a group of thugs and challenge them to throw down. Of course, unless you're super buff, that wouldn't be too smart: you'll get a vicious beating. So, your fear compartment houses: (1) good fears, and (2) bad fears.

• Fears that help you survive = good.
• Fears that prevent you from kicking major business ass = bad.

The latter is what you want to crush. It's the sucky roommate you want to kick out. Here's how.

How to Rid Your Brain of Bad Fears

Tell yo booty: I fear ___________________________. Then confront those fears, repeatedly. Incessantly. You created most fears from isolated incidents; the new now-more-positive experiences you gain when you confront those fears starts diluting the negative effect of them.

• If you fear public speaking, join a Toastmasters and give public speeches weekly.
• If you fear success, start generating 5 mini-successes everyday.
• If you're a nerdy programmer who fears girls, talk to five everyday.
• If you fear failure, seek plenty of 'em daily.

(Secret to seeking failure -- You'll discover: "Hey, it's a little hard to fail a lot of times a day. I'm actually doing much better than I thought! And, when I do fail, I'm learning a whole-heckuva-lot to succeed the next time-around. Yay!"

)

"But dudes, it's so hard for me to even start confronting my fears. Help!"

We hear ya. As with building a super dope business, confronting your absolute fears takes time and gradual improvement to get there. If you fear public speaking, you can't overcome the fear of speaking to 10,000 dignitaries overnight. Instead, to overcome that fear:

1. You start speaking in front of one person.
2. Then, you do it with three.
3. Then, with 10, 30, 50 and 100.
4. Then, 1000.
5. Then, you'll prime yourself for the 10,000.

If you fear sales presentations to Fortune 500s, start with small businesses. If you fear cold calling important executives in your county, start practicing your calls to friendly folks in Wyoming. Whatever you feel holds you back from your super ambitious business goals, start gradually cutting into those fears -- until you rid your amygdala of sucky stuff. You can't climb Everest with one leap. It's a sexy step-by-step process. Tell us when you kick booty.

Confront the sucka to throw down.

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