What are you afraid of? Here’s how to manage your fear in 2024

Well, truthfully, it’s boringly simple. You are allowing your life to be run by fear. It’s what is blocking you, what’s holding you back and what’s getting in your way between where you are now and where you want to get to.

You are letting your fear of not being good enough win out and it’s preventing you from achieving your true potential. So, while you might blame other people, you might think your circumstances are the main obstacle the fact is that your fear is your greatest challenge.

There are two types of fear. The instantly recognisable, heart stopping fear that can absolutely stop you in tracks causing you to physically react by shortness of breath, body shakes or tears. But this other type that determines what we do, makes our choices, gets in our way and stops us from reaching our potential, that’s the one we are discussing here.

Yet we can all relate to feeling fearful, scared or worried. You might know it as imposter syndrome; you might simply be scared of getting caught out, or laughed at, or judged, and some of you might just be fearful of everything else.
Fear is a natural occurrence; we all feel it and that’s not always a bad thing. Don’t be afraid of your fears. What matters most when it comes to your experience of fear is understanding what’s happening underneath.

Our aim when it comes to managing our fears, we need to shift our focus from trying to banish our fears to learning how to live with them. Working on the basis that “what we name we can tame”, once we have a better understanding of the source of our fears, we can reduce the potential to be completely overwhelmed by them.

Of course, this is not as straightforward as it might first appear, mostly because our fears are actually quite clever. They come in terrific disguises and make it more than a little challenging for us to spot them so it might require a little bit of your best investigative powers.

FOUR STEPS TO MANAGING YOUR FEARS

DON’T HIDE FROM THEM.

The only way to really deal with fear is to face it. Head on. Hiding or avoiding our fears only stops you from moving forward. Try and go gently on yourself and do only what feel comfortable and safe to you at any given time. Facing your fears is also about you recognising that some of these fears might not even be yours. They could belong to your parents, or even their parents, and have been handed down from one generation to the next. Acknowledging this will clear the way for you to reconnect with your individual needs and desires and get greater clarity on what it is you need to make you happy.

IMAGINE THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO

If you were to visualise the worst thing that could happen and you were to think about it in as much detail as possible, what would that look like? Bring it to life in your mind, or on paper, by describing how it might pan out, the conversations you might have, how you will show up in each scenario. By doing this you are starting to diffuse the influence those thoughts have over you and you’ll begin to see that the fear will dissolve the more you chase it.

EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE

When we feel fearful, we believe what we feel with utter conviction. We accept it as fact. We justify our fear perhaps a little too easily. It can often help to challenge these fearful thoughts, asking “is this true? And then asking again Is this really true?” This might sound like a basic question but trust me if you sit with it, it can bring powerful awareness. Observe when your fear becomes so mixed up with events from the past that you have decided that this is what is going to happen again in your future. It won’t, if you choose not to allow it.

RECONNECT

When we experience a life changing event, we can unwittingly become disconnected from ourselves. We move straight to our heads where we can think, analyse and plan our way forward. It gives us a feeling of control. But what we are also doing is disconnecting from our heart, our intuition, the feeling part of us and this can really give way for fear to dominate our thoughts.

Stop beating yourself up. It’s okay to be on your way to getting things done just as much as it is to having things done. We put so much pressure on ourselves to get to final destination, to have everything totally perfect that we miss out on the experience of getting there. Slow down. Expect the unexpected, anticipate the fears, make room for them but then just keep moving forward.

It can be incredibly intimidating to speak about our heart and soul space in a world that is so evidence based, yet when it comes to fears, how we feel about something on an individual level is actually all the evidence we need.

As you step into this next year ahead, I invite you to learn to listen to that, to pay attention to what your heart is telling how and to what your intuition is trying to communicate with you. If you are chasing something, be absolutely sure it’s something that you want, and not something that someone tells you, you should have.

Life will instantly become easier and your fears will begin to dissipate when you choose to do what feels fully in alignment with what you desire, and most notably, what you deserve. Don’t forget that!
Being brave isn’t the absence of fear.

Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it. Bear Grylls.

Niamh Ennis is Ireland’s leading Change & Transformation Coach and Author of Get Unstuck who through her private practice, writings, programmes, workshops and podcast has inspired and helped thousands of people to make significant changes in their lives. She is an accredited Personal, Leadership & Executive Coach and the Lead Coach in the IMAGE Business Club. Niamh is introducing a selection of new ways you can work with her in 2024 – including her half day ‘Quick Fix’, a full day ‘Get Clarity’ and is also currently accepting applications for her flagship ‘3 Month Bespoke 121 Coaching Programme called Strategy Meets Soul, starting February 2024. Email [email protected] for info. Instagram @1niamhennis.

Featured image via Toni Reed on Unsplash