We are all actually very afraid of many things in life, especially if we do not understand them properly. A common example of it being the fear of any future deadline or presentation that is slowly coming up in your calendar. What scares you is not that particular activity itself but rather the unforeseeable and uncontrollable elements that may influence your performance. Most people simply brush aside whatever they feel and try to tough it out until they realize that none of their fears actually came to realization or even if they did, you were still left standing. While this may sound like a good example of your perseverance but it comes with a caveat: your perseverance only has a limited amount of endurance. If you do not accept that you are indeed afraid of something and just try to act against it, then it is more likely that you will not learn anything and will have to go through similar situations again and again until one day, your perseverance will eventually run out and you will subconsciously try to run away from things that you are afraid of. This cause of procrastination can easily be addressed if you just embrace the fact that you are indeed afraid. Accepting it does not put a dent in your armour of bravery that you imagine yourself to be equipped with. It only gives you an opportunity to dig deep into the reason for your fears. Understanding the underlying reasons can help identify what your weaknesses are and you can then work to fix those rather than just trying to cure the symptom i.e. fear.
As I mentioned before that one of the major reasons for your fear is trying to exert control over something that you have no power or authority to begin with. What you need to understand is that such things will happen whether you like them to or not and there is nothing you can do to change that. It is often better if they do happen once to help you realize that you can indeed overcome them and come out the other side stronger than before. However, there are two things that you need to keep in mind whilst experiencing such irrational fears. The first thing is to remember that every other person around you also has the same chance of encountering that unforeseen circumstance and yet they will keep marching forward. In that aspect, no one is special and it means that you are no less than any other person as well. So, it is important for you to also keep your head high and march forward. You are perfectly capable of dealing with whatever you can possibly think of right now and then some. The second thing is to always keep track of the original fears that you did have and how the actual result varied from you expectations.
Another major reason for being afraid in life is complexity. There are many things that you yourself can list that are important for you to do in life and yet, somehow you are still not able to do them. Why? well the answer is because it is too complex to understand and it might require too much effort without guaranteeing anything in return. Also, the much easier alternative of doing nothing is sitting just beside that difficult option. The thing that people need to realize is that complexity alone does not necessarily mean that the task is difficult itself. What it likely means is that either it is complex because you have just not tried to understand it and make sense out of it yet or you are just being lazy and expecting someone else to do your work for you. It is imperative for you to know that if you keep doing the same things as you did yesterday then you will keep getting the same results today as well. Time waits for no one and if you really want to become the person that you view yourself as internally then you need to just start somewhere. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t the most perfect or most efficient beginning. I have previously talked about how taking even a very small step daily is much better then waiting for the perfect wind to blow so that you can spread your wings and fly away. Start somewhere, make a lot of mistakes, learn from those mistakes and adapt but never stop. Do this and you can forget about the complexity entirely. Focus on your small step and expect nothing from the future. Soon enough, people around you will remind you that you have made it.
To sum it up, life is supposed to be cherished and not wasted only to have regrets about the things that you could have done but didn’t. Being afraid and then overcoming your fears is what makes you a human being and not some supernatural entity. The sooner you accept your shortcomings the sooner you will be able to counter their effects on your life. You are more stronger than you know and even if the worst happens in your next presentation or interview, you will be able to find yourself out of that situation as long as you keep going. So, do not run away from things and face them head on. Good luck!
