5 Steps to Overcome Fear

Photograph by Karsten Winegeart for Unsplash

Being creative is a scary business. You want to explore a new genre but your fans demand that you stay in your lane. You want to up your game, but the fear of bombing publicly gives you night terrors. You want to write a book but what if that estranged ex comes across it and trashes it on Amazon?

Fear can be a beast; it enters into our minds and sometimes it just won’t let go. At its most extreme, it can become the master puppeteer of our lives, trapping us in negative relationships or patterns, or simply holding us back from pursuing our dreams.

Of course, fear is a healthy mechanism. It’s that voice that tells you to get out of the way when a car comes dashing down the road towards you. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of “Eat, Pray, Love” describes fear as a “hyper-vigilant bodyguard”. It puts your body in fight or flight mode and prevents you from thinking straight, when you could really dispense with its services.

The trouble is that fear isn’t very discerning. It’s irrational. It gives you a sore throat when you need to make a speech. It makes you feel sick when you’re on a first date. It gives you a migraine just as you get to work on your grand opus. It’s easy to take it as a sign that you should give up. But if you dig deep to understand where it’s coming from, you usually find a variation on the theme of fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of the unknown, etc.

There are different schools of thought on how to tackle fear: the muscular approach, which encourages us to toughen up and conquer fear, and then a more compassionate tack, which I personally find more appropriate for long-term change.

Here are five steps to help you get unstuck and get back on track when fear gets in the way:

1. Describe your fear — what triggers it, how it manifests, how it affects you. Observing what’s happening and the ramifications of fear is often the most important step towards successfully overcoming it. You can spot the early signs and take relevant action. You can also be kinder to yourself when you know the extent of what you’re pushing up against. 

2. Take an outsider’s view of your fear. Objectively, how likely are things to go wrong? What’s the worst-case scenario? Is it an undesirable situation you could tackle or is it an unbearable mess?

3. Now, build a vivid image of what you stand to gain if you overcome your fear. Would you feel liberated, empowered, proud? Is it worth making the leap?

4. Once you’ve committed to overcoming fear and getting on with your project, assemble a support network. You might want to collaborate, find a nice writers’ group, find a coach, or even to buddy up with friends. There’s nothing like discussing your work, particularly elements you’re nervous about and laughing about goofy ideas. You may well notice that your ‘stupid’ ideas are often the ones people find most valuable. 

5. Envision the best possible outcome. Like an athlete going through the motions of a race in their mind, think about what you need to be successful in your endeavour. Visualisation is a great tool to help you understand what you’re trying to manifest. Do you want to connect more deeply with a small segment of your audience or are you happy to iron out anything too edgy? Whichever image comes to mind and feels right, commit to it. 

Fear is a big creative blocker. It’s especially relentless in this day and age, where we are expected to produce more and faster. It’s easy to focus on the wrong things and get stuck in the terror of being invisible, obsolete, poor. So getting to really understand where your fear is coming from and deciding what you’re going to do about it is very empowering. Maybe that project is better left until you have more support. Maybe your fears about it aren’t founded. Whichever way, fear can disclose the most valuable information about your work and intention. 

So tell me:

• Is fear preventing you from taking action at the moment?

• What would be the single simplest way to make your project less intimidating?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Email me your answers here. 

I wish you all the very best with your creative endeavours!

Charlotte