Conquer Your Fears

Photo by dizznbon

Fear has the power to hold you back from taking risks, following your dreams, or becoming successful at anything you attempt to do.  If you allow it to control you for long enough, it can eventually erode your quality of life and keep you locked in a prison of inactivity. Are you ready to face your fears and achieve your dreams

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by fear - so much so that it prevents you from doing something you want to do.  This is a common problem faced by many people daily, but don’t let fear hold you back, especially from returning to college as an adult.

What is fear? Fear is nothing more than a conditioned response.  It's a natural reaction to a frightening or unfamiliar situation.  While you can’t eliminate your natural feeling of fear towards new situations, there are definitely things you can do to overcome it.

1)  Check your expectations.

One major contributor of fear is the prevalence of negative expectations.  Do you expect the worst in every situation?  Instead of focusing on your strengths and capabilities, do you worry obsessively about what could go wrong? If so, it’s time to change your mindset.

If you make a conscious effort to expect the best, see the positive side of each situation and keep reminding yourself that you can handle more than you often think, you'll find yourself with much less fear to deal with.  Even if feelings of fear do manage to creep into your consciousness, you'll still be able to keep them in perspective and balance them against an underlying sense of confidence. Use visualization to see yourself performing admirably in a new situation, whether it be going back to college or going on a job interview. Olympic athletes use this technique to put themselves in the frame of mind to see that victory is possible.

2)  Discredit your fears.

Experts will tell you that the majority of things you fear will never come to pass anyway.  While this may be true, it sure doesn't feel that way when fear has a chokehold on you!  However, if you look a little more closely at your fears when they arise, you may be able to dismiss at least a few. We often blow up scenarios in our minds to be far more intimidating than they are in reality.

For example, if you have a fear of public speaking and you are required to take a speech class or make a presentation for your classmates, you might feel like your life is on the line.  You may fear failing the course, or worry that your classmates will lose respect for you if you don't do a good job.

But is any of this likely to happen?  In most cases, no.  Rather than worrying about what "might" happen if you don't give a solid presentation, solid preparation is the key to overcome your fears. Brainstorm ways to help improve your performance, such as being well prepared, practicing your delivery on friends and family members, writing notes to yourself, practicing your speech in front of a mirror, asking a classmate to exchange critiques on each others’ presentation and so on.

3)  Do the very thing you fear.

When you remember that fear is simply a feeling, it loses much of its power.  It can't harm you and except in truly threatening situations you can choose to ignore it and move forward anyway.  Yes, returning to college after many years can be intimidating, but it is also highly empowering. Adult learners have organizational and time management skills from their years managing a household or being in the business world that youngster’s lack. Break tasks into manageable chunks. For instance, instead of signing up for a full course load if you’ve been out of the classroom for many years, sign up for one course, and build on your success from there.

Don’t let fears that you’re too old or not smart enough hold you back from enrolling in college. Ignore your fears and go for it! The point isn't to become reckless with your decision-making but rather to empower yourself to know when a fear is groundless and easily overcome.