You’re about to present your brilliant idea to the board meeting. You feel so nervous you feel like you’re going to blank out… 5 minutes later and they’re still waiting for you to say something.
Fear itself is not the problem. It is in not knowing what to do with it.
Fear is our body’s natural response to stressful situations and actually helps warn us from potential dangers. It is inevitable, so we have to learn how to work with it rather than against it.
Here are 7 ways to transform fear into productivity:
Use the adrenaline.
Fear causes your body to release adrenaline. Caffeine and nicotine have similar effects to adrenaline by increasing your heartrate and narrowing your blood vessels. If you feel fear creeping up just before a speech, or a huge project, use that adrenaline to give yourself a boost of extra energy to increase your productivity and improve performance.
Reframe your fear
Instead of saying “I’m scared” or “I’m nervous,” try saying, “I’m excited!” and observe the results. Researchers at Harvard Business School have found that saying “I’m excited” out loud can boost performance. By reframing your fear into excitement, you focus on potential successes instead of failures.
Accept that fear is inevitable
Some tasks or situations always induce a certain amount of fear. It is best to accept that fear is inevitable rather than trying to avoid them or diminish the fearful emotion. The more you look at fear as a normal response, the less power it can have over you.
Identify productive worry vs. unproductive worry
Fear feeds worry. Unproductive worry usually involves stressing over things that are out of your control. In contrast, productive worry is thinking about things you do have the power to change.
Decatastrophize your fear
Ask yourself: “What am I truly afraid of?”, “What is the worst case scenario?” and “What are the odds of that actually happening?” When you realize that the answers to these questions aren’t actually that bad as they look in your mind’s eye, your fear may subside.
Find more ways to transform fear into productivity by reading the full article by Good Therapy here.
Is your productivity paralyzed by fear? What tips from this list helped you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
Lara Livengood says
Awesome idea about changing “I’m scared” in “I’m excited”. Thanks!