Conquer Your Fears To Achieve Your Goals

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Sometimes you have to conquer your fears to achieve your goals.

Two boys dove into a lake one day, challenging each other to swim across, a distance of about two miles.

They swam with a strong and steady stroke, and the lead swimmer, not looking back, continued swimming on toward the other shore.

When he emerged on the shore after completing his swim, he looked back to see that his friend was nowhere near.

When they met back up, he asked, “How was it that you did not follow me across?”

The boy who turned back said, “Oh, after I got about halfway out, I looked back and saw how far I had come, and I was afraid I could not make it, so I turned back.”

“But,” said the boy who swam across couldn’t you see that it was just as hard to turn back to safety as it was to continue swimming to your goal?”

One of the biggest obstacles to reaching our goals is fear.

Fear is an emotion that overrides our intelligence. It stops us from moving toward our goals, and it plays havoc with our quality of life. People often fail to recognize the impact of fear—sometimes because we don’t even use the word. Instead we talk about things like worry, nervousness, stress, shyness, or anxiety. But the only way to diminish fear is to conquer it.

And this is how you conquer it:

Develop self-confidence: Self-confidence is not absence of fear but the mastery of fear. The key is to know it is a state of mind you can create anytime you want, no matter what the circumstances.

Master motivation: Motivation is a vital component of reaching any goal. Since most goals tend to involve pushing through short-term pain to achieve a long-term gain, staying connected to your motivation keeps you on the path to success. Goals themselves are highly motivating, but to get even greater leverage you need to keep that motivation up front in your mind.

Proceed past procrastination: When you procrastinate, you’re waiting for the right time, the right place, the right person— external things you can never count on. When you find yourself becoming paralyzed by inaction, learn to power through. Start with small tasks to build momentum and move past the obstacle of procrastination.

Build self-discipline: To achieve a goal, you must be willing to do what you know you should do when you should do it, whether you like or not.  Underlining all great achievements is the quality of self-discipline. It is the ability to delay short-term gratification to enjoy even greater rewards in the long term.

Carry out commitment: One of the fastest ways to move past fear is to commit to what you are doing. When you commit, you’re putting your integrity on the line, making yourself accountable to do what you say you will do. If you need help, enlist support to keep yourself accountable.

Conquer your fears and achieve your goals. When you realize that you have come just so far and then you find yourself tempted to turn back instead of moving forward because of worry, anxiety, or fear, conquer your fear and enhance your motivation and self-discipline, block procrastination, and carry out your commitment.

Lead From Within: Self-awareness can be life-changing, and doing what you need to do to reach your goals is transforms leadership. Keep swimming in the direction of achievement.


N A T I O N A L   B E S T S E L L E R

The Leadership Gap
What Gets Between You and Your Greatness

After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when their performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent it.

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Photo Credit: Getty Images


Lolly Daskal is one of the most sought-after executive leadership coaches in the world. Her extensive cross-cultural expertise spans 14 countries, six languages and hundreds of companies. As founder and CEO of Lead From Within, her proprietary leadership program is engineered to be a catalyst for leaders who want to enhance performance and make a meaningful difference in their companies, their lives, and the world.

Of Lolly’s many awards and accolades, Lolly was designated a Top-50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc. magazine. Huffington Post honored Lolly with the title of The Most Inspiring Woman in the World. Her writing has appeared in HBR, Inc.com, Fast Company (Ask The Expert), Huffington Post, and Psychology Today, and others. Her newest book, The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness has become a national bestseller.

  1. Terri Klass

    20. May, 2014

    What an extraordinary post, Lolly and especially the line:
    “Goals themselves are highly motivating, but to get even greater leverage you need to keep that motivation up front in your mind.”

    Goals, even broken down into smaller milestone may not be powerful enough to keep us going. We do need to keep the reason of why we are doing things in the first place at the forefront of our thinking. We also need to keep our core values and priorities in plain site at all times.

    Thanks Lolly for inspiring me today!

    Terri

    Reply to this comment
    • lollydaskal

      22. May, 2014

      Thank you Terri. Goals by themselves are just plans, we must motivate ourselves to implement them.

      Thanks for sharing.

      Lolly

      Reply to this comment
      • lollydaskal

        22. May, 2014

        Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’

        Actually, who are you not to be?

        ― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

        Reply to this comment
  2. Panteli Tritchew

    20. May, 2014

    “One of the biggest obstacles to reaching our goals is fear.” So true, Lolly. Although we no longer encounter sabre-toothed tigers or cave bears, our evolutionary flight-or-flight response is genetically hard-wired. When we encounter resistance, we are programmed to pick up the club or turn tail and run.

    The path of least resistance leads directly to the safety of our caves where we seek solace with a good book, a movie, a conversation, or a snack.

    We can’t stop the evolutionary response of our limbic systems, but we can reprogram ourselves if we recognize that “Fear is an emotion that overrides our intelligence.”

    With the self-confidence, motivation, self-discipline and commitment you mention, we can harness the power of our minds to come to the aid of our hearts when they are beating a little too fast.
    Have a great day!

    Reply to this comment
    • lollydaskal

      22. May, 2014

      We need inner resources to help us achieve our goals, especially when we are staring fear in the face.

      Goals are easy when fear is not present.

      Lolly

      Reply to this comment
      • lollydaskal

        22. May, 2014

        Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’

        Actually, who are you not to be?

        ― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

        Reply to this comment
  3. LaRae Quy

    20. May, 2014

    Love this article, Lolly!

    Once we learn how to conquer our fears, we can conquer the world.

    If we move forward from the heart, we can be mentally tough and step forward with confidence as we meet our fears.

    Have a great week!

    Reply to this comment
    • lollydaskal

      22. May, 2014

      Conquering our fear is all where it starts.

      Having goals are easy, they are fun to plan, fun to list, fun to achieve.

      But when fear is present – goals are truly hard to accomplish on our own.

      We need the inner resources to lead us from within to achieve what we want to be successful.

      Lolly

      Reply to this comment
      • lollydaskal

        22. May, 2014

        “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love.

        When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.

        We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections.

        If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.

        Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
        ― John Lennon

        Reply to this comment
    • lollydaskal

      22. May, 2014

      There is no fear without some hope, and no hope without some fear. ”

      — Baruch Spinoza

      Reply to this comment
  4. Dorothy Dalton

    21. May, 2014

    Great parable Lolly.

    Reply to this comment
  5. Julie @ Millennial Cents

    22. May, 2014

    Great article. “Proceeding past procrastination” is key for me. I’m still in the habit of waiting to the last minute and then pulling an all nighter to finish something up. Need to break free of dumb college habits 🙂

    Reply to this comment
  6. Vince Nix

    22. May, 2014

    Superb post, extremely timely for me personally. Thanks, as always, Lolly, for being YOU!

    Reply to this comment
  7. lollydaskal

    22. May, 2014

    Do one thing every day that scares you.”
    ― Eleanor Roosevelt

    She knew what she was talking about….

    Reply to this comment
    • Brandon

      05. Jun, 2014

      This was an amazing Post. Literally at the end of that story I had a “Whoa!” moment! I appreciate your light!! Feel free to pay be a visit over at http://www.brich4life.com (My purpose is to help other find purpose and peace).

      Again, I appreciate you!!

      Reply to this comment
  8. Brandon

    05. Jun, 2014

    This was an amazing Post. Literally at the end of that story I had a “Whoa!” moment! I appreciate your light!! Feel free to pay be a visit over at http://www.brich4life.com (My purpose is to help other find purpose and peace).

    Again, I appreciate you!!

    Reply to this comment
  9. Dawood Chishti

    19. Jul, 2014

    Be immune to fear, get your goals. It’s exciting.

    Reply to this comment
  10. inspiration

    01. Feb, 2015

    I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content.
    Your article has really peaked my interest. I’m going
    to take a note of your site and keep checking for new details about once a week.
    I subscribed to your Feed as well.

    Reply to this comment
  11. Bombshell Drawer Blog

    26. Sep, 2015

    I can’t agree more! I’m glad I have read this post today to remind me of my realmmotivation and developing my conference which I am really working on the last two weeks!

    Reply to this comment
  12. Ingrid Eneheim

    02. Mar, 2016

    I really love your post Lolly.
    Our fear come back over and over again.
    Right now I need to go forward. My fears come
    immediately. What do I do?
    For moving forward I need to be present.
    Conscious. Meet my fear.
    I love when you wrote that we are actually
    afraid of our shining light and streghts.
    I believe that.
    My son loves Star Wars. That is about feeling
    the force. Accept that we have it.
    Our limits and our fear is in the head.
    They don’t exist.

    Reply to this comment
  13. Antony

    12. May, 2016

    fear really affected my life but I thank you lolly, I’m from Kenya and I don’t even know how I found your twitter handle but I really thank you wherever you are

    Reply to this comment
  14. Sohail

    22. Dec, 2016

    You are a great teacher Miss Lolly. You quote others along with your own great learnings. Great! is what I can say. Only relevant material is shared and so often that I seems that these great guidelines are filled in your mind. Excellent material.

    Reply to this comment
  15. Tetuh

    14. Jan, 2017

    Thanks Lolly, this has really inspired me

    Reply to this comment

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