Overcoming Two Wealth Killers Fear and Worry
American writer and founder of Success Magazine, Dr. Orison Swett Marden said, “…Twin enemies fear and worry.”
Dr. Marden identified FEAR and WORRY as the two most powerful enemies of peace of mind, health and prosperity because they undermine everything.
They undermine self-esteem, self-image and self-confidence. Relationships, concentration, proper digestion of food, sleep, etc. etc.
On today’s blog, learn how to attack fear and worry that stop you from moving forward in your business. You’ll discover:
- The perfect antidote to worry.
- Two words that can haunt you the rest of your life if you don’t conquer fear and worry.
- What “super-achievers” recognize as inherent both to the learning and achievement process and to prominence and how they deal with fears.
- My thoughts on the three most dangerous and paralyzing fears commonly held related to business and how to shift your mindset to
overcome them.
In recognition of this, I have made a practice of attacking WORRY with fast action as much as possible; when I catch myself worrying about something, I make a point of doing something about it as quickly as I can.
Action is the only perfect antidote to worry.
Action forces you to focus on the task at hand rather than the “what ifs”.
There’s a movie called Letters to Juliet with a great scene about “what ifs” that says…
“WHAT and IF are two words as non-threatening as words can be. But put them together side by side and they have the power to haunt you the rest of your life. WHAT IF… WHAT IF…WHAT IF…”
FEAR paralyzes many people. Florence Henderson told me of her career almost ending due to a crippling fear of flying (in her case, conquered through hypnosis and self-hypnosis.) A surprisingly high percentage of the population is affected by phobia-type fears, like fear of flying.
In many cases, these types of fears actually have little impact, do not cause significant inconvenience and may be ignored.
I happen to have one related to bridges and high, open areas, like balconies, another related to swimming; to my knowledge, neither has inconvenienced me in any real way, so eradicating them has never made it to my priority list.
However, a large number of people are severely restricted by fears of embarrassment, humiliation, making mistakes and criticism; these fears have to be addressed because they affect day to day life.
Most “super achievers” I know and have worked with have virtually bullet-proof self-images, and are largely unaffected by others’ opinions, therefore free of fears related to making mistakes and being criticized for doing so.
No, no one likes being the butt of jokes or being criticized by others, but successful people recognize it as inherent both to the learning and achievement process and to prominence, and rather than fear it, they expect it, are not surprised or discouraged by it, and respond to it as a challenge to meet and rise above.
I do not think it is possible to rise to substantial success in any endeavor if you are lugging around a tendency to worry or feelings of fear.
And it is ironic that negative imagination is more easily stimulated than positive imagination in most of us. With it we magnify and empower worry so that it can distract or paralyze us.
We all know that, statistically, most of the worries that occur to us never materialize and that the majority of those that do ultimately turn out to have less impact than feared.
But that knowledge does not necessarily diffuse worry.
I have developed my own “process” for preventing a worry from growing beyond its true size and importance, mostly incorporating Psycho-Cybernetics Techniques.
American editor (The Saturday Evening Post) and essayist, William George Jordan said, “Worry is mental poison.”
I know people who literally “worry themselves sick”. Maybe you do too. There is no doubt in my mind that you can create physical illness with mental poison.
You can also kill your business or commit suicide to your dreams. Here are my thoughts on the three most dangerous and paralyzing fears commonly held related to business:
Fear of Poverty. Having been through bankruptcy, having been broke, and having started over virtually from scratch, it does not surprise me that so many wealthy people have financial wipe-outs in their past; it is a fear cleansing experience.
If you have ever been wiped out, you will imagine it to be worse than it is.
If you’ve faced and recovered from it, you have the advantage of knowing it’s not nearly as bad as most think it is.
But beyond that, the greater a belief you develop in the unlimited opportunity available, the less you fear losing some or even all of the marbles you have.
Most people do NOT have such a philosophical perspective.
They believe in finite resources and finite opportunities, so that whenever someone gains, someone else must lose. Anyone who suffers from this win-lose view of the world is virtually prohibited from achieving great success (if for no other reason than evolving guilt).
There are two abundance principles that all self-made wealthy individuals understand:
1) One’s prosperity is never at anyone else’s expense. One person’s wealth does not create a compensating shortage for anyone else.
2) 99% of all limits are only self-imposed limits, created in the imagination but not mirrored in reality.
Fear of Criticism. Try and think of a high-pay position where you can be free of criticism for any length of time. Head coaches and pro athletes, actors and entertainers, authors, corporate CEO’s, you name it—all frequently if not continuously on “the hot seat”.
I find many people are hamstrung in their marketing efforts by fear of what their peers will say. It is my opinion that this stops more people in their tracks than any other obstacle. And, that conquering it is the single most liberating and empowering step an individual can take.
Fear of Loss of Liberty. If you wish to live free of risk, you have to be at peace with saying “no” to all new opportunities.
One of the risks attached to many opportunities is the loss of personal freedom, in one form or another; increased responsibility takes away free time; an important and prominent position requires the giving up of behaviors an “unknown” person can indulge in.
Many people even fear wealth because of the difficult decisions and responsibilities it brings.
I happen to prize both personal freedom and privacy, and certainly make some decisions where it takes priority over other considerations.
But…you also have to be confident of your ability to compartmentalize and organize your life to accommodate responsibility, celebrity and preserved freedom.
Finally, you must understand that everything in life has inherit trade-off and that opportunity and risk are inseparable.
It is never to late too conquer worries and fears…it only takes courage to take action and seize your opportunities.
Small Business Marketing Blog | Glazer-Kennedy Insiders Circle
