Think about what has been bothering you today. What’s been driving most of your worries? Does it seem rational or irrational?
Some fears are genuine and serve us well to keep us safe – ‘I’d better watch out for that speeding truck’. But we spend much of our days worrying about extreme scenarios that realistically will never happen – ‘I will make a big mistake, lose my job, and my whole world will collapse’.
But for some reason, we can’t always switch off these fears even when we know they are irrational. We are wired this way.
It can help if we reflect on adversities we have faced in the past. We somehow managed to get through those. No matter how difficult, we got by and survived. We may have surprised ourselves at how strong we really were, and this gives us the confidence to face anything the future throws at us.
Sometimes these fears might be driven by subconscious beliefs which may be outdated or untrue. For example, beliefs like we can’t swim, are bad at public speaking or suck at writing.
A way of moving past these beliefs is adopting a growth mindset – ‘I may not be able to do this yet, but I can learn and grow to eventually do it with a dedicated effort’.
For example:
- I can take swimming lessons and become a good swimmer.
- I can join a speaking group and improve my public speaking.
- I can write a blog every day and become a better writer.
Once we move past fears, it frees us to focus on what matters. We can dedicate time to those things that bring meaning and purpose to our lives, like the examples of swimming, speaking and writing.
Where will you redirect that energy if you move past today’s fear?
