There’s a part in the movie ‘Rocky 3’ where Sylvester Stallone screams ‘For the first time in my life I’m afraid’. Even Rocky Balboa gets weighed down by fear. Even Rocky Balboa gets stuck and can move forward because of the stories he is telling himself.
Have you been holding onto an idea for a business but fear judgement, have you been waiting to do something that seems insurmountable but you are worried you will fall flat on your face? Well, you are not alone. Everyone fears being rejected from the tribe, but the world’s most successful people understand that taking action in spite of fear is the only way. The only difference between them and everyone else is that they have learned how to use their fear to propel them to new heights instead of sitting in inaction.
Try these 3 techniques to tap into the power of your mind and use it to your benefit.
Tell your brain what you want!
Your brain filters for what you program it to. It’s constantly looking for evidence. So if you constantly feel that you are not brave enough to do the things you want to do, then your brain will filter for evidence of that to confirm your reality. Why? Because your brain wants to keep you safe so it looks for evidence of certainty.
The technical term is the reticular activating system (RAS)
It’s the part of your brain that is responsible for motivation. It allows certain info in and blocks out other info and it’s been programmed over your life.
If you want to feel like you can be, do or have anything that your heart desires then you need to tell your brain that.
You can do this by writing down and focusing exactly on what you want to happen. Use any fears that arise as guidance to plan for and visualise the end result. Get a really detailed image of that and see yourself in that image now. Consciously think of the positive emotions you will feel when you have taken action in the direction of their intention.
Let’s say you are ready to ask for a salary increase at work and you have been worried that your boss will be shocked that you asked and say no. Instead, concentrate on the best-case scenario, she says yes and she offers you more than you thought. This isn’t being unrealistic, you can still plan for any objections she may raise and have examples and reasons as to why now is the best time to promote yourself, so now you are prepared and going into that meeting with a positive outlook.
Your brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagined. You are encoding this visualisation as a real memory and teaching your nervous system to accept it. Soon you will find that the internal images, words and feelings will match what is happing in your external reality.
Foster courage rather than confidence
Fear is faith in an unwanted future and with our natural negative bias, we tend to create unnecessary fear in our minds especially when we are doing something outside of our comfort zones. Most of the time fear is false evidence appearing real. Accept that fear is never going away and commit to doing it afraid.
You don’t need to have the confidence yet. Any anyone who is starting out or doing something again after a rejection doesn’t have confidence, but you can have courage.
Can you remember a time when you felt brave and courageous? It might have been walking into an office on the first day of a new job or at the starting line of a half marathon or eating alone in a restaurant for the first time. Courage isn’t fearlessness. It’s taking action despite the fear you feel. You can feel more courageous by taking small daily actions in the direction of your goal and building your ‘F*ck it’ muscle!
Building your ‘Fu$k it’ muscle
Perfect is a myth. So to stop trying to do things perfectly we need to practice feeling a little afraid and DOING IT ANYWAY.
You need to practice pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone so that you can see that it’s not that scary out there after all. Take action before overthinking sets in. Connect to your beath and stay in the moment as you take action so that you don’t start to worry about the future or identify with the past.
You can do this by commit to one small action each day that usually causes fear and DO IT ANYWAY
For example. Do you hate speaking up in meetings? Commit to raising your hand as soon as the idea pops into your head and speak up in at least one meeting a day for a week.
I used to really agonise about making offers of my services to prospective clients. I decided to change my perspective to say that making offers lets my audience know I’m available for business and to help them. I decided as part of my weekly content plan I would make at least one offer, and it worked, prospective clients reached out.
So remember, see fear as your overly concerned, safety aware friend that can be told to pipe down, by living in the moment, focusing on what you actually want and taking courageous action.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elaine Benson is a mind expansion coach who helps people with impact-driven businesses to release mental blocks that are keeping them doubting and delaying so that they can increase their impact and income using science-backed techniques so that business can feel exciting again! To download a free hypnotic track go here www.iamelainebenson.com/hypno