Fear is truly an amazing concept. It keeps us alive but it also holds us back. When our ancestors were forced to hunt wild animals, they were forced to either listen to their fear and run away or decided that the meal would be well worth the danger and they would attack. So what happens when we come across something we fear? We have two general choices, we can back away or we can address that fear.
In many cases the actual consequences of the scary thing in front of you is far less scary than the fearful story you’re building up in your mind. This can be highly debilitating when it comes to social situations, personal growth, difficult professional situations, etc. So how can we champion this evolutionary mechanism of fear that is no longer serving our higher purpose? We can use it.
By looking at fear as an opportunity for growth, humans can actually reach their higher purpose by working through their fears. So how does one start the process of seeing fear as opportunity?
1. Start failing
Not intentionally, of course, but stop being afraid to fail. How boring would life be if we only embarked on adventures and feats that we knew were going to come out on top of. Without the adversity of the prospect of failure, the gain becomes less valuable. So assess your opportunity, determine the risk, and don’t be afraid to fail because our most important lessons can often come from our biggest failures
2. Appropriately assess situations
On many occasions, the fear of failure is much more dreaded than the consequences of the failure itself. So how do we pull our fears into the realm of serving us? Assess situations appropriately. You can work through to what the actual consequence of failure is by asking yourself what you have to lose by making the change, for example, to give up sugar. On the one hand, you could beat your sugar addiction, on the other hand, you could fail and continue to live your life the way it has been. So what is the harm in trying?
3. Show up
Putting yourself out there by addressing the fear, deciding the risk is worth the reward, and showing up to do the work is the only way to experience personal growth. In the realm of sugar addiction, persistency in continuing even after you have slip-ups is what really makes the difference in Sweet Freedom. So keep yourself accountable because you can’t experience change if you don’t show up for yourself.
Remember that completing the Sweet Freedom program perfectly with no challenges the first time through is not how you will experience the value that it has to offer. So don’t expect to nail this change down perfectly in the first week. By putting in the work and facing the challenges it asks you to address along the way, you can experience a crazy amount of growth within your physical and mental and soulful wellbeing.