How to Manage Your Fear

“Fear is the greatest obstacle to learning. But fear is your best friend. Fear is like fire. If you learn to
control it, you let it work for you. If you don’t learn to control it, it’ll destroy you and everything
around you.”

The quote above is from Cus D’Amato, the legendary boxing trainer that made Mike Tyson the
youngest World Champion ever. Fear is always present during high performance activities. It doesn’t
matter if it’s sports, business, investing or politics. The pressure to perform and the ruthless
competition is impossible to escape.

Obviously the consequences are more direct in some situations. A boxer that let fear paralyze him in
the ring will get knocked out and risk his health.

The soccer player might miss a penalty shot because he choked during the last seconds when he
stood there alone in front of the goal.

If a day trader let fear control his decisions he will only risk his own or other people’s money. But that
is bad enough and totally unnecessary. Because as we will see in this article there are ways to
manage your fear.

Fear is Natural

The truth is that all people feel some kind of fear. This is part of human biology. After all our brain’s
number one function is to keep us alive. We worry to anticipate possible dangers and problem-solve
our way through them.

All humans today comes from vigilant ancestors – If they wouldn’t have been vigilant they wouldn’t
have survived. But in today’s society with the media constantly reporting on different dangers it can
be difficult to put things in proportion. Large-scale fears get mixed up in our minds with small
worries. At the end of the day it can feel like we’re drowning in anxiety.

Procrastination – Running Away From Success and Inner Growth

For most people their fear will manifest itself in the form of procrastination. They pros pone what
needs to be done to move them forward. This behavior can come from a number of different fears.
Here are a few of them:

Perfectionism: The fear of not doing something perfect prevents him from doing anything at all.
Instead of taking action he might be reading 500 books on the subject.

Comparisons: Many people compare themselves to others and fear they don’t measure up. They get
too intimidated to even try. “I know he’s better than me on this and I don’t want to look foolish.”

Of course all procrastination doesn’t come from fear. Sometimes it’s just about being a lazy bastard.
Fear Management 101

How will you beat your fears and introduce the World to the high performance person that’s already
inside of you? Here is a plan:

1. Know Your Downside. Donald Trump have said “Always protect against the downside – The
upside will take care of itself.” Do your homework. Know the facts in advance about what
you have to lose.

2. Have Clear Goals. To have a clear goal is an absolute necessity to keep you focused. When
you know what really matters you will feel less fear because you will care less about the
smaller things.

3. Focus only on what you can control. This is key. Focus only on your performance, not on the
potential outcome of your performance. Remember that while it’s great to use other people
as inspiration you must focus on your own thing. You can never assume someone else’s
identity on a mental level. If you try to do that your unconscious mind will be in a constant
fear to be exposed as a fake.

4. Take action. Actions drives out thoughts. It’s the things you’re saying to yourself that all too
often comes in the way of doing what’s necessary. When you have decided to do something
then take action immediately. DON’T listen to that little inner voice in your head that tries to
talk you out of it.

“I may be wrong but I never in doubt” says the high performance coach known as the 50
billion dollar man – Dan Pena

5. Realize that perfection takes practice. This is an important understanding for every
procrastinator. You must start from where you are today and realize that you can’t have
quality without a certain amount of quantity. In other words, you might have to live with the
fact that you screwed up a couple of times before you finally nailed it.

Let’s say you’re launching a new product or service. It doesn’t matter what kind of story you
tell yourself in advance about this launch. At the end of the day you will get all the relevant
feedback you need directly from the market.

Just Do It!

It will not be easy to adopt the advice from this article into your life. Some people will always stay in
their own comfort zone where no real personal growth ever happens. They will procrastinate on
dealing with their own procrastination. Don’t be one of those people. Instead – Just do it!

Remember that if you want any real change in your life you MUST think and act differently. Instead
of avoiding pain, uncertainty and heartbreak we must embrace these emotions.