5 Reasons Why You Must Face Your Fears

Fear is prevalent in everyone’s lives today.

Research shows that up to 84% of people have irrational fears that prevent them from succeeding and living the life they want.

That’s a lot!

Having some fear is normal. It’s one of the ways we have survived as a species.

Our nervous systems are naturally wired to sense fear as a survival mechanism. The fear response tells us to remain alert and avoid dangerous situations.

But unfortunately, too many people let their fears run rampant and control every aspect of their lives.

This was true for me in 2020.

During the pandemic, I decided to start a blog. I’d been interested in becoming a life coach for a while. I figured writing about resources to help people improve their lives and achieve their goals was a good place to start.

I bought a domain name and built a website. It took me some time to set it up, but I did it.

In August 2020, it was ready to go! All I had to do next was to publish my first article and then I’d be a blogger. Mission (almost) accomplished!

Except, I never published anything. I was too scared.

I was scared if it’d be any good. Of what people might say. What they might not say. That it would just prove I was a failure.

I let my fear stop me from helping people. For months, I didn’t write one blog post.

Fear owned me.

Then in December 2020, I found a program called Ship 30 for 30.

In it, you wrote 30 essays in 30 days and published one every day for a month. The group helped people face their fear of publishing. So I joined in January 2021.

A few days later, I published my first essay: Goals are Dreams with Next Steps.

I had finally done it! I published my first blog post.

It happened because I faced my fear.

Its the same for you.

If you let fear control you, you won’t live your true life.

You need to face your fears and move forward. You must push through the scary things and keep going.

Not only do you accomplish something amazing, but you also improve your life.

Here are 5 reasons why you must face your fears:

Overcoming fear makes you less scared of the thing you were afraid of. You build courage. By confronting your fears, you reduce the power they have over you.
Facing your fears boosts your self-confidence. When you challenge yourself to do something that scares you and succeed, it’s proof of your own inner strength and resilience.
Avoiding your fears makes them bigger. Facing your fears, even in small steps, prevents them from becoming more deeply ingrained.
Facing your fears expands your comfort zone. Pushing past your limits allows you to develop new skills and capabilities.
You are proving to yourself you can do hard things even when you're afraid. When you avoid what you're afraid of, you're telling yourself you need to avoid all scary things. But when you confront your fears, the story you tell yourself changes. You prove to yourself you can be afraid and survive.

If you let fear control your life, you’ll never truly live.

In her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Bronnie Ware lists out the biggest regrets of those on their deathbed.

Do you know what the number one regret is?

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

Here is how Bronnie own describes it:

This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

Too many people let their fears ruin their lives and prevent them from pursuing their dreams.

After initially experiencing a bout of paralyzing fear, I realized I didn’t want to live a life controlled by fear. I choose to confront it and hit publish on that first blog post.

Since then, I’ve learned how to confront fear in many areas of my life.

This is what's profound when you confront your fear:

You now know how to do it, so you can do it again.

And again.

Your life will never be free from fear, but you can learn how to control fear instead of letting it control you.

Your action for this week is to take action to confront one of your fears.

It can be something massive or something small. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you face your fear. What matters is that you build confidence. What matters is that you develop courage. What matters is that you are taking action.

Remember, everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.