The majority of people never pursue their big dreams and goals in life because they are afraid of failure or looking stupid. They feel like they don’t have the skills, time, motivation, or intelligence to reach their full potential in life. Therefore, they stay in their comfort zones because it’s easier than trying and failing. However, we need to change our mindset to one of less judgement and pressure on ourselves. Stop and ask yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?”, when you’re fearful or stressing over a situation.

We only get one shot at life and we shouldn’t waste it being afraid, playing small, and not reaching our full potential. You will waste your life if you never live the life you truly want for yourself.

We tend to overthink and overplay all the bad possible outcomes of any situation in our heads and focus on every little thing that could go wrong. This prevents so many people from taking any sort of action toward their goals. But you need to start looking at the bigger picture in life and ask yourself “What’s the worst that could happen?”.

You may think this sounds counterproductive and that it will make you talk yourself out of achieving any of your big goals. However, the truth is, that the worst possible outcome is never truly as bad as it seems.

If you fail, you’ll learn, adapt, grow, discover new and better ideas, etc. Remember, if you look hard enough there is always a silver lining to any perceived failure in life.

If you’re scared of what other people think of you, you need to start focusing on yourself and pursuing the life you’ve always envisioned for yourself. Who cares what people say about you?

You can overcome anything in life, as long as you don’t die, you’re ok! If you lose friends, then they’re clearly not meant for you anyway. If you lose money, you can make it back. Likewise, if your idea fails, you can find another, etc. There is always something better waiting for you on the other side of failure. You can move on stronger, wiser, and more determined than ever to reach your goals.

Living in fear, not taking action, and living with regret, is worse than trying and failing. Stop wasting your one shot at life, do the scary thing, and push yourself out of your comfort zone. No matter what happens, you won’t regret it! You’ll never know unless you try and fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.

Things very rarely turn out as bad as we play them out in our minds anyway. It’s time to start putting your fears and negative thoughts into perspective.

How to Get Past Your Fears

This exercise will help you to figure out what’s the worst thing that could happen in any scenario and how you can overcome your fears and reach your full potential in life.

Grab yourself a pen and a piece of paper and ask yourself…

• What could go wrong? (Write a list of everything that could possibly go wrong if you pursued each of your dreams. Write down everything that comes into your head. Even if you think it’s silly, just let all your negative thoughts and fears come to mind and jot them down).

• How could I overcome these problems? (Next to each of your potential things that could go wrong, counteract them with ways in which you could overcome those obstacles if they came about. It will help you to see that even if some of these negative things do happen, there are ways in which you can move forward and work through them).

• What would happen if everything went right? (Think about all the goals you want to achieve and write a list of positive things that would happen if you reached all of your goals). This will help to focus your mind on the positive potential outcomes, which will improve your mindset toward your goals.

• How would I feel if I reached all of my goals? (Think about all the emotions you would feel if you pursued your dreams and reached them. Write down all the amazing feelings you would have). Make sure you take time to read each of your goals and truly feel the feelings you will feel when you reach them.

• What’s the best thing that could happen? (Start changing your mindset and choose to focus on the potential positive outcomes. What if you reached all your goals?). How would you live your life once you’ve reached all of your goals? What’s the best case scenario? Vividly picture your life and everything that you will do, feel, and have once you’ve reached your goals.

Make sure to spend some time on this exercise and allow yourself to notice when you’re feeling fearful or anxious about one of your goals. Ask yourself what the root cause of these feelings is. Are you afraid of rejection or failure, or are you allowing your limiting beliefs to hold you back?

Make proactive challenges for yourself to push through these feelings. You could practice positive affirmations, meditate, journal, go to therapy, write all your limiting beliefs down and burn them, etc. Work a little each day on your mindset, creating positive thoughts and focusing on the potential good outcomes instead of the negative possibilities.

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”– Jack Canfield

Summary

Ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen and be realistic with the possible negative outcomes. This will help you to become more level-headed and objective with your goals. When you know the ultimate negative possible outcome, you will feel more prepared if this were to happen. But remember, 9/10 the worst-case scenario never happens. It’s important to then let this worst thing go and focus on ways to not allow this to happen and reach your goals. The worst-case scenario rarely happens and we get so fixated on things going wrong that we forget all the things that could go right.

Once you’ve completed the exercise, choose to focus on the positive and problem-solving lists. Throw away or scribble out the list of fears and let go of the negative emotions and fears surrounding them.

Start focusing on what’s the best thing that could happen and let go of your limiting past beliefs.

You can achieve anything you want in your life, you just need to let go of your fears and take small steps daily towards your goals.  

Check out my post 5 Easy Ways to Stop Fear Holding You Back from Pursuing Your Dreams for more tips on how to reach your full potential!

“The beautiful thing about fear is when you run to it, it runs away.”– Robin Sharma

Head over to my Instagram page and check out my daily tasks challenge to help improve yourself and your life one day at a time! You’ll also find useful quotes and content to keep you motivated on your self-improvement journey!

Check out my post Face Your Fears: Practical Tips for a Braver You for more helpful tips!