Nothing wrong with fear – but sometimes it just leads us down the wrong path! To name just five examples…
Fear, like all our feelings, is a very meaningful and valuable emotion – unless we allow ourselves to be guided by it without questioning it. Then it can happen that our fear imprisons us and we miss out on important experiences that could enrich us and help us move forward. Because we are often afraid of something that is actually only good for us.
5 things you are afraid of, even though they are good for you
1. Failure and setbacks
Admittedly, failures are not exactly fun. They give us a nasty setback and really dent our self-confidence. But we survive them, often unscathed and with a few more experiences under our belts – and that should weigh more heavily on us than a short-term, bad feeling. The problem with the fear of failure is that it often develops into a fear of trying. But if we don’t try anything, nothing can succeed. The more often we fail and experience that the world doesn’t end because of it, the more courageously and openly we take on new challenges.
2. Changes
Almost everyone is afraid of change because it is always associated with uncertainty: will it make our lives better or worse? We would rather hold on to something we know and know we can cope with than choose the unknown. But change also offers us a wonderful opportunity: to discover new sides and abilities in ourselves and to experience more of life than what we already know. Strictly speaking, life is all about change anyway; nothing stays the same forever. In that sense, our fear of change is of no use to us anyway, except perhaps that it causes us to delay or resist change until it is no longer possible. But wouldn’t it be nicer and much more elegant to accept it voluntarily and get involved in it?
3. Let go
One of the things that scares us about letting go is that we are giving up something that we are used to holding on to. That may not sound so terrible, but in practice it is extremely difficult. But the good thing about letting go is that it makes things easier for us and creates space for something new.
4. Criticism
Getting negative feedback always feels stupid. After all, we like it when others like who we are and what we do (unless we are a rebellious teenager and it is about our parents or teachers). But criticism has something good about it, regardless of the content, whether it is constructive and whether it helps us improve: It teaches us that it is not necessary for others to like us! Only when we receive criticism do we experience that we can take it. And that other people’s opinions do not make us a worse person. No matter what we do and how hard we try, we can never please everyone anyway. But when our fear of criticism is breathing down our necks, it is difficult to accept that…
5. Error
Making mistakes is part of life. We learn through them and grow beyond ourselves. The fact that we are afraid of making mistakes is primarily because we are attentive and make an effort – that’s completely fine! But if the fear becomes too great, it can lead to us not admitting our mistakes (and subsequently not learning from them) or not daring to do anything where we could make a mistake (and thus forego the chance to develop further and become more self-confident).