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When it comes to dealing with fear, you have three choices. First, you can try to avoid it altogether. But that means staying away from every know or potential fear producing person, place, thing, or situation. That's neither practical nor productive. If you move tentatively from place to place, always worrying that around the next corner you'll come face to face with something that could cause you fear, you will be tied into knots.

A second way to deal with fear is to hope that it will go away. But that's like hoping for a fairly godmother to rescue you.

Fortunately, there is a third way to deal with fear, and that is to face it and overcome it. In the end, that's the only method that really works. Here is a strategy to help you face the fear and do it anyway.

Discover the foundation of fear.

Most of the fear we face every day are not based on facts. They are generated by our feelings. For example, a study conducted by the university of michigan showed the following:

• 60 percent of our fears are totally unwarranted; they never come to pass.

• 20 percent of out fears are focused on our past, which is completely out of our control.

• 10 percent of our fears are based on things so petty that they make no difference in our lives.

• Of the remaining 10 percent, only 4 to 5 percent could be considered justifiable.

Most of the fears we face are generated by our feelings.

These statistics show that any time or energy give to fear is totally wasted and counterproductive 95 percent of the time.

That reminds me of a story I heard about a couple in bed late one night. The husband was sound asleep until his wife jabbed him in the ribs, saying, "Jack, wake up. I hear a burglar downstairs. Jack, wake up!"

"Okay, okay," said jack as he sat up on the edge of the bed and searched for his slippers for what seemed like ten thousandth time. I'm up." He grabbed his robe and stumbled groggily out into the hall and down the stairs. When he reached the bottom step, he found himself starring into the barrel of a gun. "Hold it right there, buddy," a voice said firmly from behind a ski mask. "Show me where the valuable are."

Fear is interest paid on a debt you may not owe.

Jack did. When the burglar had his bag full and was getting ready to leave, Jack said, "Wait. Before you go, could you go up and meet my wife? She's been expecting you every night for more than thirty years."

If you've allowed yourself to be detoured by fear, it's time to look beyond your feelings and examine the thinking that's generating your fears. Compare your thought patterns to the facts and see where they don't match up. If your focus is on the past, try to move beyond it. If you're worrying about petty things, remind yourself of what is really important. And if you can't change your thought patterns on your own, seek the help of a professional counselor. Don't allow yourself to remain a prisoner of your feelings

Admit your fears

The best thing to do in the case of your few justifiable fears (5 percent or less) is to acknowledge them and keep moving forward. That's what our esteemed heroes have done. For example, consider the life and career of someone like george s. patton, a bold and innovative general who was instrumental in the success of the allies in World War II. You might be tempted to think that he didn't experience fear. But that's not the case. He felt the fear, but he didn't let it stop him. He once said, "I am not a brave man. The truth of the matter is I am usually a coward at heart. I have never been in the sound of gunshot or sight of battle in my whole life that I was not afraid. I constantly have sweat on my palms and a lump in my throat. " Imagine that: one of our bravest generals thought of himself as a coward.

One key to patton's success was that he leaned how to deal with fear. He declared, "The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That's the time to listen to every fear you can imagine. When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all of your fears and go ahead!" If someone who considered himself a coward could do it, so can you.

Accept fear as the price of progress

You must realize that the things you fear will come true or they won't. And your fear will not positively affect the outcome. Fear can only detour you if you let it. That's why it's critical to accept fear as the price of progress. Jeffries Susan admitted, "As long as I continue to push out into the world, as long as I continue to stretch my capabilities, as long as I continue to take risks in making my dream come true, I am going to experience fear."

Any time you try to move forward into new territory on the success journey, there is a chance that you will fail. Your attempt to move forward may also make you look foolish. And the thought of that probably makes you nervous. That's all right. Just about every person who ever achieved something of value faced fear and moved forward anyway. True heroes are the men and women who conquer themselves.

Develop a burning desire within.

Your dream is one of the most effective antidotes for fear. It can fuel the flame of the desire within you until you're willing to confront and overcome your fear. Your dream can help you go where you're afraid to go and do what you're afraid to do. It will enable you to channel your fear positively. As professional boxing manger D'Amato put it, "The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear, only the hero confronts his fear and converts it into fire." Your dream can provide the spark that will turn your fear into fire.

Focus on the things you can control

Former UCLA basketball coach John wooden, one of the greatest coaches who ever lived, said, "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." Wooden was know for stressing excellent to his players and encouraging them to work toward their potential. He never made a winning a championship his goal. He focused on the journey, not the destination. yet his work ethic and focus on the things within his control earned his UCLA teams four undefeated season, an eighty-eighty-game winning streak, and an incredible ten national championships. No one had ever done that before him, and no one has done it since.

As you move forward on the success journey, you need to remember that what happens in you is more important than what happens to you. You can control your attitude as you travel on the journey, but you have no control over the actions of others. You can choose what to put on your calendar, but you can't control today's circumstances. Unfortunately, the majority of the fear and stress that people experience in life is from things they can do nothing about. Don't let that happen to you.

Put some wins under your belt.

Vince lombardi, legendary coach of the NFL's green bay packers, once commented, "Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." He understood that past success influence the ability to perform well. That principle also applies to overcoming fears. Each time you face a fear and move forward in spite of it, you are better prepared to challenge the next one. In time, you develop the habit of winning over fear, the smaller victories paving the way for the greater ones. Eventually, fear is no longer a major problem and no longer sends you on unnecessary detours from the success journey.

Feed your faith, not your fear.

The bottom line is that you have a choice. You can feed your fears, or you can starve them. Both fear and faith will be with you every minute of every day. But the emotion that you continually act upon, the one you feed dominates your life. Acting in the right emotion lift you to success, while acting on the wrong one starts you on a disheartening detour.

Feeling the fear and moving ahead anyway depend on changing your thought patterns from "Fear means stop" to "fear means go" Mark twain urged, "Do something every day that you don't want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain."

The irony is that successful person who keeps growing, talking risks, and moving forward feels the same feelings of fear as the one who allow fear to stop him. The difference comes because one doesn't let fear dominate while the others does.

Thanks for reading through, I remain my humble self @drayhazz.