Fears, Thoughts, Beliefs

When we have some fear, it seems to the person having that fear, that the fear makes sense.  If you have a fear, it would seem that fear is real and is valid.  But often — if not most of the time — that fear is at least overblown.  Sure, there are times when a fear is valid.

But since our system is designed to over-fear, we suffer fears that are neither logical nor valid.  Since some fears are legitimate, it is tough to decide what is fair fear and what is useless.

In fact, those fears aren’t just useless, they are limiting.  They keep us from moving forward with living.

David Wood, How our beliefs (often false) create false thoughts, leading to false fears.In prior episodes, we have examined how our thoughts lead to feelings and fear, that any emotional state can be tracked to thoughts you are having, independent of reality (although it may reflect some reality).

So, in this episode, David Wood returns to examine how beliefs affect and create our thoughts.  Which leads to the fact that our emotions and fears and their roots in our beliefs.  Beliefs that may not be true.

But how do you test a thought, to see if it is real?  How do you examine a belief, to see if it is valid?  David pushes the envelope with an example, and follows up with a clear protocol for testing beliefs and thoughts.

Listen in below.

RELATED RESOURCES
David’s Website
Tough Conversations episode with David
Playing for Real episode with David
My 4 Step Process to Change Limiting Beliefs

Success Principles

Jack CanfieldOne of my favorite authors and experts is Jack Canfield. He has my full respect.  My kids grew up with Chicken Soup For The Soul.  I “grew up” with The Success Principles, a book that gave me a plan to shift my mindset.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to interview Jack. It was such a great interview, I wanted to share it again. If you have already heard it, listen for something new. If you haven’t, it is a great opportunity to hear from Jack.

Jack and I really got into some important topics.  We talked about being 100% responsible (one of his Principles), and what that means.

One of my favorite principles is the equation, E + R = O (event + response = outcome).  We had a chance to discuss that equation in-depth.  This is a crucial formula for thriving in life.

As we discussed fear, Jack talked about the fact that fear is NOT a stop sign.  It is simply a caution sign.  And then Jack discussed a way to even eliminate that fear (a slight movement away from the “feel the fear and do it anyway” idea from his earlier work).

SuccessPrinciplesCoverIs your life where you want it to be?  If not, please listen in and discover how to start getting there.  Jack gives specific steps to take.

If you want to learn more, go to TheSuccessPrinciples.com, or GRAB HIS BOOK right here.

You can find the interview below.

RELATED RESOURCES
Jack’s Website and Resources
More on Responsibility
Dealing with Fear

Challenge Makes Us Grow

Steve Sims and how challenge helps us to grow.When I was a kid, I hit this point when I was growing fast.  So fast that my limbs hurt, I constantly tripped, and knocked everthing over as my hand got there before I expected.  Growth was a challenge.

Generally, though, it works the other way.  When we are challenged (and take it on), we grow.  A child wants to crawl, then walk, then run.  But wanting to is not the same as being able to.  Crawling ends up being a bellyflop.  Walking leads to teetering bottom-bumps.  And running… well, that just leads to face-plants.  But so far, I have never seen a child give up and say, “Well, I just can’t do that.  I guess I’m not meant to crawl/walk/run.”  The child just tries again.

Challenge is something we can rise to, expand into.  And when we do, challenge is the impetus for growth.

In this episode of the Thriveology Podcast, I talk with Steve Sims.  At the age of 15, Steve finished his schooling in England, and stepped right into what seemed to be his destiny:  masonry.  Just like his father, his grandfather, his uncles, and his cousins.  In an instant of inspiration, Steve looked at his family and realized this was not his destiny.  As he told me, it was not that he was better than his family, but that he thought there was something better for him.

That set him on a search for his own destiny, a way to see the world and meet people with different viewpoints and lifestyles.  This twisted path has led to now.  Through taking on challenges and growing through them.

Listen in as Steve and I discuss his life, his challenges, and the success of taking on those challenges.

RELATED RESOURCES:
Steve’s Website for More Information
The Power of a Challenge
Learn or… Learn
Act or Accept

Free of Fear Series

The Other Side of Fear.Fear is an unavoidable part of life.  The question is whether fear rules your life, or is just a part of life.  Your brain is built for fear — it is attempting to look for all the threats possible… and does a better-than-helpful job at that!

There is no way to be “fearless.”  But you CAN have less fear.  And you can decide how to act, regardless of fear (not because of fear or even in spite of fear, but regardless).

My podcast episodes on dealing with fear can help you decide how to live, regardless of fear in your life.

Here are the links to the episodes:

The Other Side Of Fear

3 Myths of Fear

4 Steps to Taming Your Fear

Worry Less, Live More

2 Magic Questions To Live Beyond Fear

3 Ways Fear Keeps You Stuck

Fear Life or Fierce Life?

Beliefs, Behavior, and A Fierce Life

 

 

The Appreciation Approach

The Appreciation ApproachYour brain is really only capable of being in one of two modes:  fear/threat or love/appreciation. Unfortunately, the fear/threat mode is pretty much the default and automatic.

Fortunately, changing to manual and shifting to love/appreciation is not complicated.

More than that, there is plenty of research to point to the specific benefits of that shift:

  • Better emotional health,
  • Higher pain tolerance,
  • Higher sociability,
  • Greater life satisfaction,
  • More sleep,
  • More exercise,
  • etc., etc., etc.

There really isn’t much of a downside to gratitude and appreciation.  It just requires a shift in habits to get there.

Got 10 minutes or so per day, just for the next month?  YOU can build your appreciation/gratitude  toolkit and add it to your Thriving Toolbox.

Tools of Thriving Series
Introduction
Thought Awareness
Only Control What You Can

The Responsibility Formula
The Perspective Shift
Your Built-In Importance Indicator
The Importance Matrix

We ALL Have Fears!

We ALL Have Fears:  Immutable Law of LivingFear is wired into our brain.  And there isn’t any way to unwire it!

Which is probably for the best.  Sometimes, fear keeps you from doing something foolish.  It helps to keep you alive.

But it can also keep you stuck.

In many coaching sessions, I ask, “Why didn’t you do that very important thing you know you need to do in order to have a better life, a thriving life?” (OK, I usually condense that to asking why they didn’t do X, whatever X was.)

And the #1 most common response?

“Because I was afraid!”

Fear does not serve us well when it holds us back.

(Here’s a little secret:  we ALL have fears.  What you do about them determines whether you are thriving or stuck.  Your choice.  Listen below for some help.)

Oh, and here are the links to the other episodes in the Immutable Laws of Living Series:

Immutable Laws Of Living Series:
Life Isn’t Fair
Life Has Challenges
Life Isn’t About Happiness
A Thought Is A Thought
Every Perspective Is Limited
Change Is Inevitable
People Do The Best They Can

4 Steps To Changing Your Limiting Beliefs

Here's how to change your limiting beliefs and get unstuck.Within you, lurking just below the surface, there are some beliefs that are limiting you.  Your Limiting Beliefs influence your thoughts and your perspective.  They mold your paradigm and keep you held hostage.

You can break free from those beliefs.  You don’t have to be held hostage.  There is a simple 4-step process that will allow you to defeat and destroy those beliefs, once and for all.

Here are the 4 C’s steps:

C-onscious
C-hallenge
C-hange
C-ommit

And once you know the secret to uncovering the beliefs, you just apply the steps, one-by-one.  The limiting beliefs dissipate, replaced by your aspirational beliefs.

Try them out and tell me what you think!

GETTING UNSTUCK SERIES
Intro To Getting Unstuck
How You Get Stuck
You Are Not As Stuck As You Think
Give Up Your Goals & Get Unstuck
Loops
Shift Your Perspective
When Fear Has You Stuck
The KNAC Protocol For Getting Unstuck

When Fear Has You Stuck. . .

Don't let fear keep you stuck.Fear.  It hits us all.  And I’m not talking about a “fright,” a startle from something around you.  But fear.  True fear.

We all have it.  But it doesn’t have to keep you stuck.

The real problem is our relationship with fear.  We learn to avoid fear — and the things that provoke fear.

In fact, it is not the thing, but our thoughts and avoidance of even feeling the fear, that keeps us stuck.

Too many times, people will mention something they want to do, then continue with why that can’t because of a fear.

It is as if the fear has some power to stop the dreams, the hopes, the aspirations.  The only power the fear has is the power we give it.

The antidote?  Courage.  Action.  Courageous action.

Here’s how:

Beliefs, Behavior, and a Fierce Life

Step into your Fierce Life!In the last podcast, I suggested giving up a Fear Life, and moving to a Fierce Life.  That was not a life devoid of fear, but one that chose a path in spite of fear.  It is the courageous life, lived with clarity and purpose, and with intensity.

Sometimes, how we think about ourselves, our personal beliefs, hold us back.  We get caught up in “I’m not. . .” and “I can’t. . . .”

When I started running, I never knew when I could start calling myself a “runner.”  When I decided to run?  After my first run?  After my first race?  After running for a week, a month, a year?

Sometimes, it is the difference between process and product.  For example, the “product” that many people want are 6-pack abs.  They forget about the process of daily healthy choices.  They get stuck on the end result, not the path to get there.

This is true with living a fierce life.  That life is built one choice, one step, one day, at a time.

To be honest, when I was preparing for the last few podcasts, I found myself saying, “I don’t live a fierce life — I’m not fierce.”  I let my old belief system establish whether I am that person or not.  Do I always live fiercely?  No.  But can I choose to live MORE fiercely?  Absolutely!

And a fierce life is built one choice, one decision, one action at a time.  Slowly, you become FIERCE.

2 Magic Questions To Live Beyond Fear

2 Magic Questions to help you live beyond fear.Over the years, I have met several people who told me they “had no fear.”  I immediately knew one of two things were true:  either they were unaware or or unwilling to admit to fear, or they were not pushing very hard.

That doesn’t mean that we should live in fear every day.  Only that fear is a part of any growth and development.

There are plenty of moments in life that are carefree and fearless.  But an overall life that is without fear is a life lived too small.

The danger, though, is being trapped by fear, reduced by fear, and boxed by fear.

People grow and change, though, through questions.  Asking, “I wonder. . . ” or “What if. . . ” or “How could I. . . ” lead to change, inventions, adventure, exploration.

Fear, on the other hand, lives in statements:  “You can’t do that. . . ” or “Be careful of that. . . ” or “I wouldn’t do that. . . .”

That’s the way fear keeps us hostage — by talking in absolutes.  Fear pretends to be the authority on what you can do, what you should do.

But fear doesn’t need to have the last word.  We can always sneak around fear, to find your bigger life, your better place.

Just ask the 2 Magic Questions I outline in the training, and you can move beyond your fear.

Grab a couple of sheets of paper and a pen, so you will be ready to follow the process.

PREVIOUS PODCASTS IN THE FEAR SERIES
The Other Side Of Fear
3 Myths of Fear
4 Steps to Taming Your Fear
Worry Less, Live More