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Shannon Downey

Owner - Social Entrepreneur, Pivotal Production

TEDCRED 500+
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How do you overcome fear?

What are some tips, tricks, processes that you employ to help you overcome fears?

Topics: fear motivation
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    Shannon Downey 500+

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    TED AttendeeTEDx Organizer
    Feb 21 2012: I am taking about overcoming fears that limit you from doing what you want to do with your life.

    For Example, you want to start your own business but you are afraid you won't succeed so you don't do it.
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      Linda Taylor 50+

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      Feb 21 2012: Thanks for the clarification. If you are afraid of starting your own business you shouldn't. Or you can leverage that fear to make sure you do it correctly.

      Fear is just a barrier. And as with any barrier, we can go over, under, around, or through. The only option that actually destroys the barrier is to go through. So if you want to conquer fear, you have to go through it. Or it comes back as a barrier.
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        Colleen Steen 500+

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        Feb 21 2012: Fear gives us information. I agree Linda, that fear either gives us information that starting the business may not be the best choice.....OR....it gives us information as to how we can leverage that information/fear to make sure we do it correctly. It's a choice as to how we use the unformation provided with fear.

    • Mary M. 50+

      • +1
      Feb 21 2012: I will tell you a story....let's see if it helps you.

      A friend of mine loved interior design...her mom made her study business. She worked for the same company many years, until the company closed and she was out of a job. No other job that she ever
      accepted lived up to her first employment out of college, so she stayed home to raise kids....all the time loving interior design, and helping her friends and family decorate or redecorate their homes.

      She feared starting her own business. Well, her husband left her, and she had alot of time on her hands, so she started inviting herself to people's homes and redesigning their rooms for free. Then, as other visitors noticed the extreme makeovers, she started to get paying clients, and to make a long story short, she is now the proud owner of her own business......A little bit of effort and curiosity and initiative and encouraging friends and family is sometimes what helps us overcome our fears. Start small, a little bit at a time.

      Hope I've helped you in some small way.Oh, and here is a quote that I've used with others:

      "The only failure we should be afraid of, is the failure to try."

      Be Well.

      • Michael M 30+

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        Feb 24 2012: I don't know how I missed your reply. That is a great story and a great quote. It isn't all just "thinking your way better" to something. Trying is sometimes the best remedy.

        • Mary M. 50+

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          Feb 28 2012: Yes.....trying is sometimes the best remedy.....It is fear of the unknown that holds us back many times.

          Thank you for your reply Michael.

          Mary

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