21 Ways to Fight Fear
Fear is something I struggled with for years. I would always find a way to talk my way out of doing something that would be beneficial to me especially if It involved risk. I was happy that I found the courage needed to be able to block out fear and be positive and accept the challenges that come my way. Here are some of the ways below I was able to fight off fear. Enjoy!
1. Destroy negative thoughts- Fear thrives on negative thoughts. Your negative thoughts can be 40 to 70 times stronger than your positive thoughts. One of the things I started to do was when I would get a negative thought I would say “Nope it's not worth it, I have better things to spend my time on”. After doing this for several months I’ve been able to combat negative thoughts. Negative thoughts will always come, you just have to be prepared to fight back and not allow it to take over your mind.
2. Stop watching other people’s success and feel that you are far behind- Have you ever looked at some people you went to high school or college with and think why you’re so far behind? They own a house and you're still in an apartment, they have investments and you’re living paycheck to paycheck, they have a happy relationship and you can’t seem to find the one. Stop comparing yourself to others, some people will be ahead of you, but you must learn to focus on yourself and stop comparing yourself to others. You don’t know what they had to do to get to that point.
3. Work on yourself- You’re on the couch sitting down with a beer in your hand or maybe even a cigarette or blunt. Time is going by and before you know it, you’re watching movies and going through your contacts to see “what everyone else is doing”. Use your time wisely. Read some books on an area of interest, put together a plan for your next plan of action, use some time to self-reflect and begin to cut things out of your life that are holding you back. Think but don’t overthink.
4. Stop hanging around people who waste time- Energy is a very contagious thing. If you hang around people who aren’t doing anything with their life, you most likely won't either because that’s the company you're keeping. When you read this, I want you to stop reading, find a paper and pen and write down the last 20 people that you spoke to either by text or through a call. After you’ve written that down ask yourself, who do you look up to? If you don’t look up to the people in your inner circle, I suggest you start making some changes…
5. Start eating healthier- Fear loves to play with our sight? Have you ever looked in the mirror and you realize that you're gaining weight in the wrong places? Or you feel very sluggish? Changing your diet can help you feel a lot better. Fear hates when you do positive things in your life because it loses its power over your mind. Drink more water and eat healthier. Also join a fitness program and invest in yourself.
7. Meditate- It's better to mediate than to overthink. I had to learn this the hard way. Mediating is a brain massage. Just like when we get a physical massage to get out the knots in our bodies. Mediating does the same thing for our minds.
8. Work on improving your finances- In 2021 this topic will be one of the biggest talks of the year. Taking control of your finances. But it's easier said than done. If you haven’t been able to combat your fear, it will be extremely hard to take control of your finances. However, when you learn fear’s little tricks you can begin to actively cut things off in your financial life that you do not need. If you haven’t already, read my post on “32 ways we can save money in 2021”.
9. Failure is not a death sentence, it’s a lesson- This is fear’s trump card. The thought of being a failure and always being a failure. How many times have we invested in Forex and blew our account? How many times have we bought a rental property and it has all sorts of issues and we lose money and tenants? How many times have we applied for a promotion and didn’t get it? How many times have we said we were going to save and never saved because we used the money for personal pleasure and then our car needs a part replaced and it’s an amount we don’t have? Fear LOVES those scenarios. Truth is, failures are just lessons that help guide you in life to find success. We’ve always been taught from a young age that failing is bad. Failing is only bad when you don’t know why you failed.
10. Stop taking risks for bad things and start taking risks for good things- Ever find it strange that we find enjoyment in things that aren’t good for us, but the things that are good for us we don’t enjoy doing them? This circuit needs to be flipped. Fear has tripped our circuit breaker.
11. Don’t always consider families advice- I know I’m going to catch some heat for this one but hear me out. I’m talking about the family members that when you bring up an idea, they always have something negative to say. I’m talking about the family members who aren’t doing anything to change their mindset or well being and they look at you as a lost cause. You do not need that type of energy. Remember, energy that you are around is contagious, stay away from negative energy. How can someone tell you how to use your money, but they are still wasting their money? “Ain't nobody got no time for that”.
12. Cut off the “cut me a check friends”- If your friends aren’t invested into you. They aren’t your friends. If you are an entrepreneur and you create a product that your friends use, and they aren’t buying from you and giving you feedback they are not your friends. If you are trying to change your lifestyle and they are making fun of you and calling you names…they are not your friends. How can they give you advice on something they aren’t doing themselves? How many times have you told a friend an idea and they respond to you saying, “I was thinking about doing that too”. Or they will shoot down your ideas and then say, “But if you get rich you better help me out”. Well you better the hell not. If they were not supporting you when you weren’t making money, you don’t owe them a thing.
13. STOP OVERTHINKING- One of the ways to get out of fear’s grip is to stop overthinking. Have you ever caught yourself talking out loud repeating the same thing repeatedly? Or you are walking around the house giving yourself a lecture? Ease up with all of that. You need to concentrate on what’s important, not beat yourself up. What is the problem? How can I fix it? Then move on to other things you need to do. You don’t need to waste time figuring out new strategies and algorithms lol. You know what I’m talking about. Stress is not a positive emotion and it has fear on the speed dial.
14. Start improving yourself today and not on new year’s- I never understood the point of a new year’s resolution. You can start working on changes in your life the moment you think about it. Waiting for new year’s is just an excuse to spend extra time enjoying the thing you want to get rid of. Excuses aren’t good for the mind. It gives the mind a false hope and creates doubt in yourself. Doubt is a relative of fear.
15. Stop listening to music that’s not motivating- We live in the age of mumble rap and lyrics talking about things we can’t relate to. Listen to positive podcasts and speeches instead. They will keep you motivated. They will also keep your mind on positive thoughts. You didn’t wake up in a new Bugatti this morning, did you?
16. Stop spending hours watching other people on T.V live their dreams- You have a day off work and what did you decide to do? Click on the T.V and watch shows for over 5 plus hours? Do you realize that when we watch T.V we are watching other people live their dreams? What about your dreams though? Stop wasting time and put time into building yourself. Wasted time is something you can’t get back and fear knows and loves that.
17. Keeping up with the Jones is tiresome…Stop- You pay for the brand name, not the product. Live your own life. Who cares if you drive a low-end car? The high-end cars cost a lot of money to maintain and pay each month. The $1500 purse, who are you trying to impress? Your boss? Celebrities don’t sign your check and most celebrities don’t care about your wellbeing, they already made millions thanks to us. You don’t have to be like everyone else to be comfortable with yourself. I’m not saying you shouldn’t want to have nice things in life. I’m saying that it should be on your terms not anyone else’s. What does your bank account say?
18. Don’t let your job get to your head- How many of us go to our jobs and get reminded now and again that we need to stick to our job description? Some of our jobs make us feel so insignificant at times. Do not let a job or person make you feel low about yourself. You don’t need the negative energy and you have options. The stress is not worth it. Stressing is pointless and leads down to an unnecessary path. If you haven’t already, read my post on “6 reasons why you should stop stressing”.
19. Create a positive go to- This is my bazooka against fear! For any of us that have played call of duty and you saw a group of enemies that just spawned. You take out your rocket launcher and “GOT EEM”. One of the things I did instead of over thinking was have a positive go to. So, when I felt a negative emotion come along, I would say “Nope not today, it’s worth my time” Then I would follow it up by an action of doing something I loved to do. So, I would go for a jog, lift some weights, or go work on myself. Fear hated that I followed up my thoughts with an action. Fear loses its power overtime. Hit’em where it hurts!
20. Spend time in Prayer- Stronger faith is my nuke for fear. If you have faith that your creator will intervene for you, it will feel like you have the power to overcome every obstacle you face. My faith was weak because I thought I could defeat fear on my own. I quickly learned that fear has more than one trick and tactic that it uses. I’m still getting better with praying every day. But when I call God to intervene, fear trembles.
21. Restore faith and belief in yourself- Strong faith helps you to restore belief in yourself and your abilities. Fear squeezes that out of your mind overtime and sometimes you may not even recognize who you are. Rediscovering who you are and the gifts that you have is one of the key ways to fight back against fear.
Thank you for reading my post “21 ways to fight fear”. I hope that this post will help someone who is still struggling with fear. Fear kills a lot of dreams and prevent s us from making progress in our lives, but with encouragement and the development of self determination we can fight back at fear and not feel intimidated! What are some more ways that we can fight fear? What has been your experience with confronting fear? What did you do to help you overcome your fears? Please comment below and let me know! If you enjoyed this post please feel free to share and if you are new to Millennial Oaks please subscribe :).