How to Eliminate Any Fear

Do you remember how brave you were when still a child? You thought you could battle dragons, take on tigers and fight pirates. When you grew into a teenager you were still full of gung-ho believing you could do anything and be anything and then something happened to you as an adult and you lost faith in yourself. I think that something that happened, was life.

Advice for graduate of the school of hard knocks

Are you a graduate of the school of hard knocks like me? Have you encountered some big blows, endured some spectacular failures? It can be hard to feel confident and capable after being knocked down. Instead you end up fearful and cautious. But you don’t have to keep feeling like that. I think you either have an appetite for life or you have a fear of life. You are either going to get out there and live large, or you are going to feel defeated by your setbacks and retreat into yourself.

A Prosperity Mindset Helps You Overcome Fear

As part of my prosperity mindset I have told people to have faith in the universe. Believe that good things will come to you. I am basically advocating that you throw away your fears and believe that happiness and wealth will come your way. They are pretty hard concepts to accept if you’ve had some setbacks. I appreciate that. I also urge people to embrace life and keep learning. Read books, go to galleries, visit new places but just keep living large.

I saw a professor on television recently talking about “child mental health competence” and was struck by how similar her idea of mental health competence was to my idea of a prosperity mindset. I later tracked down this professor’s research on a website and this is what I found out.

Mental health of five year olds is linked to their ability to learn

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute researchers have analysed teacher-reported data for more than 302,000 Australian children in their first year of primary school and identified a strong correlation between child mental health and learning. The research has been published in the School Mental Health journal.

The paper looked at child mental health difficulties – with symptoms such as anxiety; and child mental health competence – the child is confident, curious and getting along with their peers. This is the first time Australian researchers have looked at how the combination of mental health difficulties and competence impacts the learning capacity of young children.

MCRI’s Senior Principal Research Fellow of Policy, Equity and Transition, Professor Sharon Goldfeld, said the study found that around 20 per cent of children with very poor mental health experienced problems with their early learning, while less than one per cent of children with optimal mental health experienced these problems.

What is mental health competence?

This idea of child mental health competence is intriguing. I have read more about it. It means the child is curious, confident, happy to learn, gets along with others, is open to new experiences and hungry for knowledge. These health researchers found that children with these attributes did much better at school.

Child mental health competence really does sound exactly like having a prosperity mindset. You need to be curious, confident, happy to learn, get along with others, open to new experiences, hungry for knowledge. You need to be optimistic and hungry for life! If kids with these traits do better at school, then I know adults with these traits will do better at life!

Basically fear sabotages your happiness and success. The key question is how do you throw off the shackles of fear?

1. Change the way you think

Essentially I’m asking you to shift your thinking patterns. Think positive, not negative. A good way to do this is to get some positive statements and read them to yourself in the mirror at the start and end of every day. Think of yourself as a pilot. If you point the nose of your plane into the ground that is where you will end up, but if you point the plane’s nose high in the sky … well then the sky is the limit. You can help shift your mindset by reading inspiring books – read biographies on people who have beaten the odds and excelled. If you tell yourself you can’t do something, then you won’t. But if you believe in yourself, others will believe in you and you will soon find you are on the road to success.

2. Devise a plan and follow-it through

You will feel more sure footed if you know which direction you are going in. It is no good just sitting around worrying about the future. Instead get out your pen and paper and write a detailed plan for your life. List your goals and then detail what actions you are going to take to achieve those goals. Break it down into mini goals and immediate challenges. Once your plan is in place, go to work! Take action to get where you want to go. If you feel like you are making ground, that you are on the road to success then you are less likely to feel stressed or fearful. Having a plan and ticking off goals gives you a sense of satisfaction. Remember just keep moving forward, even if you are only shuffling forward in increments, but you are going in the right direction and fear will not slow you down.

3. Practice being afraid

This might sound crazy but you have to get used to leaving your comfort zone so do one thing every day that scares you. Start with something small, for example have a meal by yourself in a restaurant one night. You may feel conspicuous but you are challenging yourself. Start up a conversation with a stranger. Enrol in a course at a college and learn something new. The more things you do that challenge you, the less afraid you will become.

Follow these steps and soon all those anxieties that were holding you back will vanish and you will rediscover that fearless child who battled dragons, took on tigers and fought pirates.