How To Overcome Your Fears And Make A Decision

Not making a decision is the most detrimental decision of all.  Not making a decision means that you’re deciding to stay where you are. You’ve decided to do nothing.  All because it’s easier to not to make a decision than to face your fears.

Here are some of the most common fears that hold you back from making a decision.

Perfectionism

One of the most common fears is perfectionism.  Whatever you do, it won’t be good enough to meet the incredibly high standards that have been set.

The truth is, nothing is perfect.  Perfect is a subjective word.  Your perfect may be different than my version of perfect.

When you’re focused on making something perfect you are also faced with the fear of failure.  You’re so afraid that you’ll make a mistake that you don’t take any action.  You choose to wait until you think things are perfect so you can proceed.  But that time rarely happens and that’s why you’re remaining stuck exactly where you are.

There is an underlying fear to perfectionism.  It’s not the fear that things won’t be perfect.  It’s that you’re afraid of what other people will think when it’s not perfect. That’s judgement.

Judgement

Judgement is the fear of what other people will think.  On some level you’re concerned with other people not liking what you’re doing.  If they don’t like what you’re doing that leads to you believe that they don’t like you.  Judgement is actually the fear of what other people will think of YOU.

If someone criticizes your work, you jump to the idea that it’s not good enough.  Take it a step further and you start to think that means you’re not good enough.  Deep down you are worried that what they think of you might be true.  On a subconscious level you may believe that you’re not good enough.  That’s the fear of judgement.

When you’re too caught up in the fear of judgement of what other people think you don’t make any decisions.  Other people will have no way to judge you if you don’t make a decision.  Yet again you are choosing to remain where you are rather than face your fears and make a decision.

Take Action

The only way to get over your fears is to start taking action.  Action creates clarity.

If you were learning how to ski, would you learn faster by watching videos on YouTube or by taking lessons on the slopes?  I hope you answered putting on the gear and hitting the slopes.  Through action you’ll learn so much more.

Decide what action you need to take and do it!  Stop thinking about it and make a decision.  Feel the fear and do it anyway!

Wrong Decision

But what if you make a decision and it’s the wrong one?

Decisions seem final. You can’t change your mind.

You’re worried that if you do take action you’ll go down wrong path and get so off course that you will have to back track.  You’re so wrapped up in the fear, thinking what if you went left instead of right, went up instead of down, or chose red instead of green.  This is the very reason why you’re stuck in indecision.

Make A Decision

Just decide and go for it. Learn, improve, and course correct as you go.  Know that it’s going to be messy.

It’s better to learn than to stay stuck where you are.  If you’re staying stuck then you’re going to in the same place this time next year. You’ll be staying still.  There will be no growth or progress.  That’s worse than making the wrong decision.

Think about it this way, you’ve made a decision that you want to go to Florida.  You’re currently in Washington.  Now there are infinite number of ways to get to Florida.  There are different routes, modes of travel, and lengths of time to get there.  But you’ve made the decision and you know where you’re going.  Now all you need to do is start moving.  If you just sit there and do nothing then you’ll never get there.

Let Go Of Your Fears

The fears in your head are keeping you making a decision.  Stop believing these fears.  Stop making things such a big deal.

You’re jumping to all the worst case scenarios and the feeding the fear.  You are making things so much harder and creating a lot of problems that don’t really exist because you’re buying into the fears.

Envision climbing a mountain and you have a backpack weighted down by fears.  It would be so much easier to hike up the mountain if you dropped that bag of fears.

Get out of your head. Let go of the fears that are keeping you stuck from making a decision.  Make a decision and move forward.  Your future is waiting.