4 Questions for Overcoming Fear

One of my financial mentors, Les McGuire, once taught a formula to manage fear.

When we are faced with fear, Les said, we can overcome it by answering the following questions:

1. What’s the worst possible thing that could happen if my fear occurs?
2. What’s the worst possible thing that could happen if I never overcome or eliminate this fear?
3. What’s the best possible outcome I can expect if I don’t overcome or eliminate my fear?
4. What’s the best possible outcome I can expect if I do overcome or eliminate my fear?

Answering these helps us to consciously deal with unconscious, instinctual fear. It reclaims our decisions from what Seth Godin calls the “lizard brain.”

It helps us realize that the outcome of not confronting and productively dealing with our fear is much worse than avoiding the things we fear.

What are you afraid of? Get your fear out in the open and let it dry out and shrivel in the heat of conscious choice.

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Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.