Successful people have courage. If you want to succeed personally or professionally, you must develop the willingness to move through your fear and toward your goals and dreams. You have to become courageous.
You develop courage as you master your psychology, which is one of the six Pillars of High Performance. The reason for this is simple: Fear most often begins in the mind. Your mind tells you a reason exists to feel afraid. More often than not, this information is incorrect—it’s False Evidence Appearing Real (FEAR).
You thoughts have trained themselves on some future event, or even a current event, you think might have a negative outcome. You have no proof that potential outcome will become a reality. In fact, the future might present an ideal or positive outcome instead.
You have the ability to determine if you are safe or in danger. You also can decide how to protect yourself. However, most people bastardize this ability into excuses to remain emotionally comfortable.
After all, some of the things humans fear most, such as public speaking and flying, don’t pose any physical threat. If a mountain lion is chasing you, you have reason to fear for your safety. That lion could physically harm or kill you.
If you need to send out a query letter to a publisher, the fears you have about rejection (or acceptance) exist in your head, not in the physical world. You aren’t in physical danger. Your fear revolves around a future potentiality. The result of your action, which is what you fear, doesn’t exist yet. It hasn’t happened.
In such cases, your fear is an ego-based condition. The fear stems from thoughts of possible future outcomes, none of which will land you in the hospital or a casket. Rid yourself of that fear with mind management as opposed to safety management.
Think about it: Firefighters have good reason to feel fear each time they enter a burning building. They get over that fear so they can succeed at their jobs—and save lives—with training. They practice until they are comfortable enough with their fear of coming to physical harm that it doesn’t stop them from running into flaming buildings. They develop courage.
According to author and trainer Brendon Burchard, most of the fears your mind tackles daily fall into three categories:
In all three cases, you fear mental and the emotional pain that accompanies the possible outcome. You are not afraid of physical pain nor are you in physical danger.
Yet, these fears hold you back. They stop you from taking the necessary steps to succeed.
Here are a few examples of how this might play out in your life:
To combat these fears, Burchard suggests you turn them into anticipation of positive future payoffs. Stop seeing them as potential negative outcomes.
For example:
Use your mind to train yourself to become courageous. To move through fear and develop courage, train your mind to:
You also can use this following training exercise to develop courage:
If you want to have the courage to pursue your goals and dreams, become conscious of your thoughts. To this, notice how you feel.
Your feelings are a result of your thoughts. If you feel anxious or fearful, you’ve trained your thoughts on undesirable potential future outcomes—even if you are staring at a mountain lion! Ask yourself if you are in physical danger; if you are, take action fast to protect your physical safety.
If you are not in physical danger, ask yourself what you are thinking about. You’ll discover your fearful thoughts, and then you can change them into thoughts of fabulous possible positive outcomes.
When you train your mind in this way, you will find it much easier to move through your fear. You will have the courage to discover and take the next personal and professional step forward. And with each step, you’ll get closer to what you desire—success.