By Jack Perry
Fear is one of the most powerful human emotions. It can paralyze you, hold you down, or move you to action. In fact, fear is so strong that your body has a physiological response to it. When you encounter a fearful situation your adrenal gland forces adrenaline into your blood stream. This surge of hormones can give you temporary boosts in strength and speed.
People are afraid of many different things. Some fear physical pain or the unknown, although most identify their greatest fear as public speaking. These people are afraid they will look foolish or fumble their presentation in front of a crowd. Sales professionals often fear rejection. They even avoid making cold-calls or initiating sales because they are afraid a prospect will say “no.”
Obviously, some of these fears can be extremely detrimental. After all, a sales person who can’t make cold-calls will never be able to maximize his or her success. Fear destroys ambition and creativity, and can drive you to very destructive results. Unfortunately, few people can ever completely eliminate fear. Even brave people have fear; they are just able to work through it.
So how do you fight fear? The key is to shift your mindset. You can use the following techniques to change the way you handle your fears.
Visualize Your Success
A subconscious mind doesn’t know true from false. Your subconscious mind accepts what you choose to give it. Therefore, you can trick your mind into believing a successful outcome by using positive self-talk. Many people who fear public speaking often envision themselves forgetting their speech. They actually see the events in their head like a movie where they walk up to the podium and choke. But this image only makes the fear grow stronger. If you can change this image to something positive, your fear will dissipate. So instead of envisioning your own failure, envision your success.
Keep Your Mind Occupied
Identify what you’re really afraid of, and then focus on something else. You may have heard a common remedy for the fear of public speaking is to picture the crowd naked. Well, keeping your mind occupied is similar to that idea. If you’re afraid of heights but you want to try rock climbing, then focus your eyes on the cliff in front of you rather than the ground below you. Move your vision or thoughts away from the fear and into a more comfortable zone.
Practice Facing Your Fears
Another way to build your confidence and get over your fears is to gradually overcome them in steps. If you’re afraid of calling strangers i.e.cold-calling, don’t try to get over it in one day. Start with the goal of making one cold-call each day. Then after a week or so, when one call feels comfortable, increase your goal to two calls each day. Keep approaching your fear, step by step, and soon you’ll forget all about it.
Convert Your Fear to Faith
Everyone is afraid of something. However, not everyone lets their fears limit their success. The difference is the way you handle your fear. Essentially, fear is like a 12 inch thick steel wall between you and your success. You can treat this wall as a boundary, or you can see it as a challenge. If you’re afraid of looking foolish at your company softball tournament, then use your fear as a challenge to improve your skills. And if you’re afraid of failure, have faith in your success. This shift in your mindset will help you use your fears to your advantage.
Realize Your Fear Probably Won’t Kill You
Some things you might fear can obviously kill you, such as fire, poisonous snakes, and guns. But these are the good fears that keep you safe. However, no one ever died from rejection, public speaking, or cold-calling. These fears only hold you back. So when you find yourself in one of these fearful situations, such as speaking in front of a crowd, try to consider the absolute worst that can happen to you. Yes someone might get up and walk out. This might temporarily hurt you emotionally, but it certainly won’t kill you.
Build Your Confidence
When you have a fear of rejection or cold-calling, you’re not afraid of physical harm. You’re actually afraid of emotional harm. Where is that fear located? In your mind. For some sales beginners, it hurts their feelings when a prospect declines their offer. The only way to strengthen your emotional resiliency and defeat the fear of rejection in the sales process is to build your confidence. Start by identifying the primary objections you will receive. Then role play the objection scenario and how you will overcome it until you are comfortable. Your sales manager or a coach can help guide you through this process.
List Your Sales-Related Fears
This technique allows you to put your fears into a clear perspective. Take out a sheet of paper and list your fears on the left side. Consider everything you would do if you knew you couldn’t fail. Then on the right side, answer the following question: If you were told that you must overcome this fear or your family won’t be able to eat for a year, would you do it?
Defeating Your Fears for Good
In terms of success, fear is the number one challenge that people face. When you are afraid of something, you give it power over you. Consider the schoolyard bully. If he knows you fear him, he has more credibility, confidence, and power over you. But if you don’t let him bother you, then his power diminishes.
Brave people are able to move past their fears. Regardless of what you fear, the emotion is likely limiting you in some way. But you can use these techniques to make your fear more manageable. When you choose to overcome your fears, you’ll be able to achieve so much more in life
Now go out and do the right thing….conquer your fears.
Fears from The Respect Factor® Series
THE RESPECT FACTOR® is a trademark of Jack Perry in the United States and other countries. Used with permission. ©2009 Jack Perry. All rights reserved
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