Despite all its stress and negative emotional qualities being fearful can be a very helpful state. But only if you are prepared to dig a little deeper when it’s around.

Find Out What it Really Means
There are only two basic fears in life. First is fear of falling and the other is loud noises. Both of these are borne from the need to survive and keep safe. All the other fears we experience are learnt fears.

A typical example of a learnt fear might be your parents shouting at you: “STOP!”, when you were small and at the road’s edge. Their need was to stop you being run-over. Now as an adult it’s maybe left a mental pattern of you freezing in fear every time you hear a loud voice.

The upshot of this style of learning is that you never question why you’re fearful and stuck. You just feel that way and act accordingly.

So what can you do to change all this? You can start to be more aware of your fearful states with a powerful objective. That is, to have them be useful and support you rather than limit you.

Use Fear for Positive Action
From now on commit to turning fear into an ally that guides you to taking positive steps forward.

Here’s a simple plan to get you going
When you’re fearful, stressing or worried write down in long hand what’s bothering you. Don’t censor yourself, just get it down in free flow. Make sure you write out what the problem is, not how you feel about it. (Of course this advice doesn’t apply if your need is to get out of the way of a large grissly bear or similar!)

• Have a short break and then review your notes. You may see connections or a theme. These will be clues as to what you need to do to lessen or remove your fears.

• Perhaps you’ll realise that what you need is more information, or expertise. Do you know anyone you can ask?

• Once you’ve committed the problem to pen and paper you might even find the solution coming forth as a result.

• If none of the above happens immediately, write out what you’d like instead of the situation and then quiz yourself on what you’d need to have that happen.

The point of the exercise is to get used to using fear as a trigger to enquire what’s going on and work out how to move forward. Overtime and with consistent application you will be pleasantly surprised as to how things change. You may find that you’ll begin to greet fear with positive excitement.

But I don’t expect you to believe all that I’ve said here, there’s only one way for you to find out if it all works and that is to try for yourself. Please let me know how you get on.

If you’re feeling stressed out or suspect you’re burnt out and want to check out your symptoms download my free ‘Symptoms of Burnout’ report. It will help you identify your feelings and moods and workout what you action you could take to alleviate your symptoms. Click on the link and look to the left hand side of the screen for the download.

Or you can purchase my e-book ‘Beat The Burnout Blues’