How to turn fear into a positive motivator.

By Angeli Marie Shaw

Fear. We all know what it is, how it feels and what it can do regarding how we feel, respond and act and in certain situations. Our ancestors developed their sense of fear as a survival tactic, and from this we’re ingrained with our fright-or-flight instincts to keep us safe from external threats and harm’s way.

But unlike our ancestors, we now live with many more stressors that trigger our fear response. The thing is, fear isn’t an inherently negative emotion, and when used correctly or from a different perspective, can be a valuable tool and strong motivator to excel.

So, what is fear? What are the different types? And how can we use fear to its full potential as one of your most powerful motivators?

We’ve all felt that sinking feeling in our stomach when dread, distress, or panic suddenly consumes us. Fear is our body’s alert system and when we feel threatened, physically or psychologically, our body automatically sends out a red flag to warn us to protect ourselves by activating our fight-or-flight system.

Where fear can differentiate, is when the fear is defined as rational, or irrational. Rational fears tend to include responses that happen when your life is in imminent danger, for example, having a weapon pointed at you, whereas irrational fears can be described like phobias, something that offers little to no threat to you, such as a fear of judgement. Some irrational fears stem from a common rational fear, but the response is so disproportionate, that it becomes unnecessarily debilitating.

A person may have a healthy fear of snakes and not want to be near them, which is rational. But if a person can’t even look at a picture of a snake without being overcome with panic, the fear becomes irrational.

It’s unhealthy to let our fears become more powerful than the threats and becoming inundated with feelings of distress can disrupt your mental or physical well-being, leading to problems like mental burnout, physical exhaustion, or clouded decision-making, but what if we can use our fears as motivators instead?

We can describe the types of motivation in a few different ways; two of them being internal and external. The first coming from within, and is found when doing something that aligns with our interests, ambitions or personal values.

The latter, coming from outside of us, to potentially earn a reward, like a promotion, or avoid a punishment, such as job loss. Then there’s also consequence-based fear motivation and solution-based fear motivation, or short-term and long-term fear motivation. The fear of missing a pending deadline or arriving late for a meeting are examples of where short-term fear motivation can help us perform better, but again this is only in the short term.

With long-term fear motivation, fears don’t have timelines or clear resolutions. So, for example, you may hold the fear of losing your job, however, with that fear you strive to do your job to the best of your ability and keep improving your skills to avoid possible job loss.

So, while fear is certainly one of our most uncomfortable emotions and we naturally try to move away from it, for better or worse it also works as a motivator by compelling us to act. I can guarantee that many of us probably share the same, if not similar fears.

For example, fear of failure, falling behind on finances, or losing a job, even losing our businesses. But to successfully use fear as a motivator, it must be paired with a solution! Think about your fears. What solutions can you think of?

Fear is a natural part of life. None of us can escape it. But we can all learn to manage it and use it to our advantage. Rather than letting fear overwhelm and paralyze you, learn how to detect the difference between good, short term fear that keeps us creative and bad fear, mainly long term fear that wears us down and leads to poor decision-making.

Once you equip yourself with a better understanding of your own fears, not only will you get to know yourself better, but you can embrace them and use their motivating power to move forward, grow and succeed.

As always, I believe in you!

Love & Bliss, Angeli xxoo

@theblisscoach