Defeat the Foe! 5 Steps to Rendering Fear Powerless in your Dream Pursuit

Sometimes I think back on the process of writing my first book. It was an experience! The writing, the editing, the book cover, the launch, and the selling phase.

Each of these phases brought with it a level of fear that slowed down the process.

The writing fears: “Is this book really needed?”, “Is my writing good enough?”, “Will 1000s of people buy this book?”

The editing fears: “What if the editor hates it?” “Will I need to re-write the entire book?” “What if I choose a horrible editor?”

The launching fears: This is when you present your hidden treasure to the world. You step out and take the risk of rejection, bad sells, and worse of all, not making an impact on readers.

Whether you’ve written a book or not, if you’re human, I’m sure you’ve experienced these fears somehow or another. I’ve had the privilege of speaking with top CEOs, business owners, and authors. What I’ve discovered, to my relief, is that fear is universal.

I’ve also discovered that what separates the dream achiever from the average is their approach to fear.

What fears have you encountered? Have you allowed fear to stop you from going after what you want? Have you shrunk back instead of stepping forward?

Whatever you’ve done in the past, here’s what you can do to ensure fear never gets the best of you.

1. Decide. Success starts with a decision. To begin the process of eliminating fear, it’s essential that you first decide. Decide that you will do whatever it takes to achieve your dreams in the face of any fear that arise. This decision will make the choice of giving up and going forward easy when things become fearful. Why? Because you’ve already decided.

When you make this decision, write it down in a journal, tell your close friends, scream it out of your window, and do whatever you can to make it the most serious decision you’ve ever made.

2. Imagine the Possibilities Instead. There’s a big correlation between fear and imagination. As kids, we fear the boogey man, the dark, being left alone… why? Because as children our imagination is at its peak. It’s easy for us to see things that are highly improbable through the eye of our mind.

Seeing the improbable is what causes the fear reaction. “What if this book doesn’t sell?” “What if no one reads it?” and all of the other thoughts that I had were simply imaginations of my mind. They say F.E.A.R is False Expectations Appearing Real.

How do we combat negative imaginations? By imagining better! The same way that your imagination creates a fear response is the same way your imagination creates a confident and positive response. Every time a fearful imagination creeps up, create a new one.

If you imagine that you’re not good enough, see yourself good enough. If you imagine that they’ll hate you, imagine that they’ll love you. If you imagine that you’ll fail, see yourself succeeding.

3. Remember what’s on the line! Is fear worth not accomplishing your big dreams? Is reaching the age of 50 having forgone going after what you want because of fear the experience that you want in life? Is the deadly state of being average the life that you want, all because you were afraid to get over fear? Enough said!

4. Take fast action! Thomas Edison once said, “Vision without execution is hallucination”. In the same vain, Jim Rohn once said, “Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.”

You can imagine better, decide and make your decision known to the world but unless you take fast action you’ll never win the battle against your fears. Fear is much like cancer. The longer you allow it to settle in your head, the worse it becomes until eventually it paralyzes you in inactivity.

The solution: act as quickly as possible!

One of the greatest discoveries that I’ve made about fear is that it’s mostly a before the fact feeling. After the fact, you’re left with a sense of accomplishment, greater confidence and Mojo to conquer the next thing. You simply have to get over the initial feelings and Just Do It!

5. Repeat. Where the true power in conquering your fears lies is in conquering them over and over again. Each time you conquer a fear, you render it less powerful than before. More importantly, you learn how to manage other fears when they arise. Become a fear killer!

I encourage you to go for it! There’s no fear that can hold you back from your dreams except the ones that you allow. Guess what? I launched my book! I had a book launch party, sold out and exceeded my expectations. I receive comments from people on how much they love Dream On and how it “completely changed their life” and their feedback changes mine. Thank God that I didn’t allow fear to hold me back from my dreams! Dream On!