11 Nov
2008

Conquering fear

Technology is a wonderful tool for tackling fears. You can register for any anonymous email address you want and post anything you want, anywhere you want it.

But what does it take to really tackle a fear or move past an initial hesitation? In our highly-social, highly connected world, it’s difficult to imagine that we have real emotions that cause us to pause, and have to stare something in the face.

But in reality, a lot of our daily decisions are, at a minimim, affected by fear. The fear of failure, the fear of not being acceped. Even the fear of success.So, let’s look at fear from a sociological perspective and determine how to fix fear.

According to a paper in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, fear can be divided into two primary types: fear as an emotion and fear as a consequence of or motivation for social relations.

Fear as an emotion is often times based upon learned or natural behaviors that external forces have no bearing on. But what about the fear we can control? The social and business interactions.

Social fear

In my opinion, situational and social fear is normal. Being hesitant to enter a situation, sign a term sheet or hit submit means that your brain is firing as it should. But the challenge is what methods can you use to conquer the fear?

Information is power

I’ve found that being knowledgeable helps to alleviate any fear or intimidation I may have been feeling. Make sure you are factually accurate and can defend your points and perspective. Then you have nothing to worry about.

Trust your gut

Making any decision is difficult. If you’re educated on the circumstances, then trust your instincts. Usually the first reaction is proper and won’t lead you too far astray.

Talk about it

Find somebody you trust. Having one person that can serve as a confident but is honest enough to provide a reality check is an essential business tool.

These are just three tips that I use and help me make decisions and proceed in the face of fear.

So, what do you do to confront fear? Let me know.

3 thoughts on “Conquering fear

  1. Super post. You have got a new regular reader. Please keep up the good posts and I look forward to more of your amusing posts.

  2. Fear can be utterly paralyzing. It’s sneaky and builds up over time. After a while it cannot be noticed, but one is in it.

    Action is the best way to ignore it. Get up and do something. Have an intent then move forward.

  3. Three short, meaningful ideas for confronting fear. I think the fear of failure and even the fear of success affects more of our efforts that we’d like to admit.

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