Gotcha. You thought I meant that other word. I'll save it when I hit my finger with a hammer.

Today's four-letter word starting with an 'F' is: FEAR.

We all have some sort of fear at some level at some time in our life. It might be a very present fear staring us in the face or it might be a background fear hiding in the attic — but it's still there doing its dirty work.

I know your fears. How? We all have the same fears . . . Fear of:

Meeting new people
Asking or demanding more from your team
Stepping outside of our comfort zone
Pushing back on your boss or a client
Losing your job or a major client
Fear of failure
Fear of success (this happens more than you think)

Fear sucks. But what really is fear?

It's the future. It's what is going to happen.
It's the unknown. Anything can happen. You might looks stupid or unprofessional.
It's the loss of security. When you are insecure, you begin to get anxious.
It's your mind taking you from anxiety, mixing in a little bad thinking — and you get fear.

Anxiety is not all bad. It's your body telling you that you are stepping out of a secure zone in your life. You're pushing yourself — you're trying something new.

Unfortunately, your mind takes over and you begin to spin terrible stories in your head about 'what might happen' and fear rears it's ugly head.

So how do you conquer fear?

Acknowledge you are stepping into an area that is new or hard. You are pushing yourself.
If you feel anxiety, stay there, let your body feel the anxiety for a little while — it will fuel your next step.
You need to get back into a secure mode. How do you do that? You need the other four-letter word: "PLAN".

The best way to deal with fear is to have a PLAN. And not a 20-page plan. Sit down and write up a simple one-page plan with steps and activities on it. What happens?

You begin to stop worrying about the future and stay in the present.
You start to envision a gradual set of tasks to take you from where you are to where you need to be.
You have a process to fall back on in case fear creeps into your head again.

"Do what you fear, and the death of fear is certain." - Anthony Robbins

What do you FEAR? Do you have a PLAN to take care of it?

Image provided by Alex Talmon at Unsplash (Free - do whatever you want - hi-resolution photos).