Life Balanced

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined. -Henry David Thoreau

Have you ever felt like your life was in park while everyone else’s lives seem to be moving in a positive, forward direction?

Every change in life involves taking a chance or risk, and if you don’t take any risks, your life is going to be pretty unremarkable. Of course there are lots of perfectly good reasons for not making a major change in life - lack of money, too busy, need a plan, timing not right, etc. But when you get right down to it, fear is the underlying emotion that prevents most people from taking risks and making major, potentially positive life changes.

So how do we get over our fears and get the courage to take risks? Do this exercise to determine if you are letting fear get in the way of your dreams:

1. Ask yourself what you are afraid of. Make a list of all the things you fear will happen if you were to make the change/take the risk you are considering.
2. Address each fear one by one and ask yourself, “What would happen if that fear came true?”
3. Write down a few ideas of how you would address the fear/resolve the problem if it came true. Now you have a back-up plan!
4. Think about and make a list of all the positive things that could happen if you took the risk and made the change.
5. Look at the alternative. Now that you’ve addressed all your fears and thought about the positive potential outcomes, how are you going to feel staying in your current situation?

I’m not going to say that this is a full proof way of getting over fears - it’s definitely not. But if you do have some limiting fears in your life that are preventing you from fulfilling your dreams, it’s worth doing the exercise to see if these fears are legit or not. Then it’s up to you to decide what you want to do about it.

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