How to Overcome Fear: 9 Ways

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Knowing how to overcome fear matters because everyone feels this emotion, whether they admit it or not. Some are more open about it than others. Take it from someone who feels random bouts of fear at times, me. It’s an important life skill to master fear because fear can make or break you.

The most and deepest fear that I have is that I’ll get laid off from my job. Whether I want to admit it or not, my job is my identity. It’s what makes me who I am and what brings me food on the table. When I first started my career, I worked in a highly unprofitable industry, oil and gas.

When oil reached $40/barrel, it wasn’t uncommon for me to feel afraid. Then that fear became a reality, when I saw colleagues that I’ve been working side to side with get laid off. I saw it with my own two eyes. Just like that, they were gone. One of them was making approximately $400,000 per year.

On top of that, I didn’t have anywhere near the amount of money that I have now. Therefore, if I got laid off, I had no cushion. There was no margin of safety. I was on my own. After years passed, I’m still afraid that I’ll get laid off. However, it’s not as extreme. I used to feel extreme nerves at night.

Scared out of my mind that if I don’t produce, I don’t eat. It’s a good thing I figured out how to overcome fear, otherwise, I will still be feeling like that. Everyone feels fear, no matter what they say. Some just manage it better than others. The good thing is, there’s ALWAYS a light at the end of the tunnel.

What Makes You Feel Fear

You can’t know how to overcome fear if you don’t know what makes you feel fear in the first place. You feel fear because:

1) You Care

You want your future self to succeed. You want to take care of your future family in whatever ways that you can. This is a good thing. If you didn’t care, you would just go about your own way, not caring about the world or how you’re doing. When you feel fear, it shows that you care.

Maybe it’s a fear for your future or it’s a fear that nothing’s going to work out. No matter what, fear is a good thing because you’re emotionally invested in something. I recently got into a car accident in March 2022. I felt so afraid to drive afterwards. The person ran a stop sign and failed to yield.

It took a very long time before I got comfortable enough to actually get back on the road again and drive long distance. I felt fear because I cared about my safety, I didn’t want that event to repeat. After some time, I got back to driving normally. Caring is a good thing, it’s an evolutionary emotion.

2) Uncharted Territory

You’re navigating new waters. Maybe you haven’t gotten into a car accident before in your life. Or maybe you haven’t moved across the country for a new job before. Whatever the case may be, you’re afraid because you haven’t gone through it before. That’s completely normal.

Life is full of new experiences that we haven’t gone through before and that’s what makes it exciting. Knowing how to overcome fear means knowing why you’re afraid and many times it’s because you don’t know a solution to possible problems that can happen.

It’s perfectly normal to think and feel this way. Everyone felt is at some point. However, trying something new is how we grow as a person. You’re not here to solve the same problems that have already been solved. You’re here to solve problems in your life that hasn’t happened before.

3) Change

This is a word that makes many people sweat. You feel fear because you’re afraid of change. Things are going so well right now, and you’re afraid any new thing is going to make it even worse. Without thinking how a new thing is going to make it even better.

Change is the number one reason you have to know how to overcome fear. Change is the only constant in your life. No matter how well you do, there’s always going to be outside factors that puts a tailspin on your plans. There’s always someone else out there who’s going to affect your life.

No one thought we would have a stagflation economic environment in 2022. That wasn’t caused by you, it was caused by someone else. No matter what, you will experience change. Even if it wasn’t through your own doing, someone else will force you to experience change in your life.

How to Overcome Fear

The number one way on knowing how to overcome fear is to SMASH that social share button and post to your favorite social media! There’s nothing scary about sharing knowledge.

So with that said, let’s go over the concrete steps on knowing how to overcome the emotion.

1) Overcome Fear by Sleeping on It

How to overcome fear by sleeping it off.
Sleep makes a huge difference.

You may not realize it, but sleep makes a huge difference in how you feel throughout the day. When I don’t get good sleep, I don’t just feel groggy. My confidence goes to an all time low. I don’t feel like myself and it feels like something is wrong with me. It doesn’t feel good or safe.

Good sleep is a great way on knowing how to overcome fear. There are people who thinks sleep is a waste of time. If you’re one of those people who are biologically wired to not need as much sleep, then more power to you. For the majority of us, sleep is how we recharge.

It’s how we recharge our batteries so we can get back at it and do more amazing things we never thought was possible. One day of sleeping makes all the difference in the world. I’ve been sleeping badly since the coronavirus pandemic. Once I figured out how to get good sleep, the world opened up to me.

2) Regularly Exercise

Getting our heart rate up matters more than we know. I used to have a free gym membership until 2019. Then in 2022, I got a job with a company who has an in-house gym. I’ve been taking advantage of the gym and letting the traffic wear out in the meantime. It’s been amazing.

I not only take care of my health but I also get to avoid traffic. It’s the best of both worlds. On top of that, it makes me feel so great by the end of the day. Helps me sleep better. Then the next day, I just feel amazing. Knowing how to overcome fear starts with your basic needs first.

If your basis physical needs aren’t taken care of, your psychological and physiological needs can’t be taken care of. Your health is built based on layers. You can’t skip over one to get to the next one. It doesn’t work like that. Regularly take care of one building block before moving on to the next one.

3) Use Logic to Overcome Fear

How to overcome fear by using logic.
Logic is a powerful thing in fighting fear.

Logic is what makes fear afraid. If you don’t feel any emotions except for cold and unemotional logic, then you won’t feel fear. If you’re afraid about getting laid off, then you ask yourself if it even happened yet. More than likely, it hasn’t.

If it didn’t even happen yet, there’s no point in thinking of a plan to sidestep the event because it hasn’t even happened yet.

Worst case scenarios rarely happen, if at all. When I was a senior in college, I was desperately afraid that I will graduate without a job lined up. I had 5 job offers with another pending before I decided to stop recruiting. My fear never happened. I was afraid that all of the money investment to my education would be gone to waste.

Looking back, I should have been more logical. That the job market was on fire for college graduates and the fact that I was graduating at one of the top universities in the state, if not the country. Logic is your friend when it comes to knowing how to overcome fear.

4) Take it One Day at a Time

You’re trying to figure out a long term solution in a single day. That doesn’t work. In May 2022, I was feeling all sorts of pressure. I was figuring out how to do my new job well, and on top of that I had to move cities to Austin, TX from Houston, TX. My car was giving me trouble so I had to fix that.

It was difficult and a stressful time. Although I’m glad those days are behind me, I should have taken it one day at a time. Knowing how to overcome fear is about taking it one day at a time and not trying to solve everything at once. It’s not wise to fight two wars at one time.

Focus on one thing at a time before moving on to the next one. One completed project is better than two 75% finished projects. You will face my wars in your life. You are the general. How will you allocate the time army that you have? Over time, you should get better and better at allocating resources.

5) Gather Other People’s Perspectives

Right now, fear is making you irrational. It’s making you feel emotions that a person normally wouldn’t feel. Talk to other people. They have a better handle on your life than you think. Some people could validate what you’re saying is true. However, the majority of the time, people will offer alternative perspectives.

For example, the fear that I will get laid off. Some of my closest and smartest friends have given me some great advice on shifting my perspective into another way. How to overcome fear means being open to other people’s perspectives. You may be too close to the problem.

Getting in the weeds of the problem can be worse than looking at the problem from a high level view. It makes a world of a difference. Sometimes your fears are valid but most of the times, it is unfounded. There truly are smart people out there who can put your mind at ease.

6) Rebuild Your Sense of Control

How to overcome fear by rebuilding sense of control.
Your sense of control are the building blocks.

Right now, you feel afraid because your life doesn’t feel like you’re the one in the driver’s seat. I’ve been there before. Every bad thing that could happen in 2022, happened. I got in a car accident. Inflation is at an all time high. My side business I wanted to start didn’t work out, losing multiple five figures in the process.

In times such as these, it’s more important than ever to get back to the basics. The basics are what’s going to help you push ahead. If you’re having financial trouble, are you still saving and investing as much as you were before? Are you cutting back on some expenses like before?

Whatever it is, it’s time to get back to the basics in order to regain the sense of control. Control is what’s going to help you feel good about your life. You don’t want to spiral out of control I’ve been there before, and trust me, it doesn’t feel good. It took me about five months before I felt OK again. It doesn’t happen overnight.

7) Step Back from the Fear Inducing Activity

When you feel fear, the last thing to do is to tackle it head on. Especially if it’s an ongoing fear that you’ve felt. How to overcome fear doesn’t involve tackling the problem head on again as you’re not feeling your best. It’s to tackle the problem head-on when you are feeling your best.

Take a step back. Forget about it for a while. Ignore the problem. Yes, it’s going to be in the back of your mind. However, that doesn’t mean you have to let it consume you over the months and years. Go on a walk. Go to the park. Have coffee with your friends and talk about nothing else but fun.

Now, obviously, if you’re afraid of losing your job, don’t stop working altogether. However, you can do other things to distract yourself like putting in more effort at your job. Most layoffs I’ve seen weren’t due to performance. It was due to the company being unprofitable. Therefore, I’m focusing on things that I control.

8) Go Back to the Basics

The basics are what’s going to keep you afloat. If you’re terribly afraid of going broke, then it’s time to practice good personal finance habits again. Saving and investing as much money as you possibly can is the tried and true method of building wealth. There’s nothing wrong with going back to the basics.

The basics are there for a reason. It’s because they work. When it comes time to losing a loved one in a relationship, then the basics of bringing her flowers, giving her compliments, and the like work. The basics will help you learn how to overcome fear and allow you to feel like yourself again.

You don’t want to lose sight of who you were and who you are. You may deviate at some parts of your life but it’s time to employ the basics because it matters. When you deviate too much is when you know you need to get back to who you were before.

9) Let Failures Happen

Some people are so afraid of failing that they forget to live. Failure is a part of life. You’re going to fail and there’s nothing to do but to take the hit. Yes, it’s going to sting as it happens. However, the ones who fail are going to move forward in life more than the ones who’ve never failed in their life.

I sent in 100+ applications to get one job offer. No one was willing to get rejected that much but me. In knowing how to overcome fear, just let the fear happen. There’s no need to avoid it especially if it’s going to help you grow over the long term. You’re not the first person to fail.

And you’re not going to be the last person to fail. There’s no point in avoiding the inevitable. Failure is an inevitable part of life. Trying to avoid it would yield no results because it’s an inescapable fact of life. Letting the failures happen to move ahead much quicker isn’t a bad strategy.

Learn How to Overcome Fear and Forge Ahead

How to overcome fear is a very important life step because everyone feels fear at some point in their life. Fear is an evolutionary advantage. We were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to eat, which motivated us to find food. It’s a motivational edge we can have versus someone else.

However, there are good and bad sides to fear. Sometimes, it makes us so afraid that we don’t want to do anything else except be in bed all day long. That’s not right. We have to experience, face, and go through fear at some point in our lives. The biggest fear I have is becoming a nobody.

I’ve put in so much work that I don’t want to go back now. My parents invested so much time and money into me that it would be a shame if I end up a nobody by the end of it all. I want to make something of myself, and with that comes the fear and possibility that I won’t make something of myself.

I’m taking it day by day and some days are much harder than others. Knowing how to overcome fear isn’t an event, it’s a process. You’re not going to magically feel confident, ready to take on the world and have that be sustainable. You’re going to have to work at it and as long as you put in the effort, it’s possible.

It’s a great thing that you are feeling fear. It means that you care about something so much that it emotionally charges you to a point where you feel you need to do something about it. It’s more than possible to forge ahead, get to a point of positivity, and come out as a victor by the end.

How to Overcome Fear Shortlist:

  • Overcome fear by sleeping on it
  • Regularly exercise
  • Use logic to overcome fear
  • Take it one day at a time
  • Gather other people’s perspectives
  • Rebuild your sense of control
  • Step back from the fear inducing activity
  • Go back to the basics

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