Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - How to Beat Fear and Rediscover Your Strength

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears" - Les Brown This episode is a blueprint to move beyond fear and step further into your potential...

Let's talk about fear. One of the most interesting aspects of being human. Our fear of touching the stove prevents us from burning our hand. In many ways, it's our greatest protector. But it's also outdated. It can obstruct us from the things that we want most. For thousands and thousands of years, it has kept our species alive. Those who weren't afraid or skeptical of the dark cave

or the rustling in the bushes, they probably didn't make it too long back in the day, right? They would have been weeded out. But the thing is, life today is very different than it was back then. We don't have to fear for our life going to get food anymore. The tricky part is that in many ways, our cognitive processes are still the same. We are wired to be afraid. And this can be a problem, because if these fears limit our ability to grow or live the life that we want to live, then that fear,

that primal instinct can be a barrier, because the human body will always take the path of least resistance. And for us, that means avoiding the problem. It's just easier. If I'm scared of public speaking, it is exponentially easier for me to avoid the problem and not deal with it. I can eliminate the pain and discomfort by simply staying home. But here's the issue with that mentality. Life is too short and too precious to waste. Think about all the opportunities we'd miss. If we ran the other way and hid every time we were afraid, if we never pushed ourselves, if we never broke through the barrier of the unknown and sought out more, it would be a tragedy. We'd live a fraction of the life that we're capable of living. So the big question is how? How do we overcome fear?

Well, it turns out the answer is simple. It's just just not easy. If you've ever jumped into a freezing cold pool, you'll be able to relate to this. As soon as your body hits the water, you go through extreme discomfort, right? Pins, needles, that quick shock you feel. The only thing on your mind is being out of the pool, being warm. But as time goes by, this changes. Your body acclimates. You adjust. And after five minutes, you can get out, you can jump back in. There's no discomfort. You're completely fine. Well, facing our fears follows a very similar pattern. The more we expose ourselves to a certain stimulus, the more comfortable we become. Tim Ferriss references this in the context of

going to a crowded place, a sprawling out on the floor, lying on your back as people walk by. It's an incredibly difficult and anxiety-inducing thing to do. It goes against every instinct we have, but something happens when you get back up. You've taught your brain that there are no negative repercussions, that it's okay. And this pushes the bar a little higher, makes you a little braver, stretches your boundaries a little further. Emphasizing the point that to get what we want out of life,

to overcome fear, to be better than we were yesterday, we cannot avoid what makes us uncomfortable. Quite the opposite, we need more. exposure to it to destroy your fears you need to muster up the courage to stare them in the face and that's tough right our mind tricks us into thinking about worst-case scenario but if you can change your mentality to see not the downside but the upside life changes along with it now the scariest outcome isn't failure or having to backtrack or being wrong the scariest outcome is doing nothing

What we eventually learn is that dark, mysterious unknown isn't half as scary as standing still and watching life go by.