Fear is a learned behavior. Children are not daunted by things that would stop many adults short because they haven’t learned to fear the world around them. A child wants to touch the flame of a candle because they have yet to learn it will harm them. They see only its beauty and want to hold it themselves. Once fear has developed it can and will rob you of your enjoyment of life – home and work.
If we give into our fears and start paying attention to them, they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Your fear prevails. The good news is, if fear is a learned behavior, then it can be unlearned and we can retrain ourselves, so our fears no longer own us.
Just imagine going through life where you see everything as an opportunity for joy and wonderment instead of letting the fear hold you back. We were all like that at one time in our lives. Your goal now is to remember what that felt like and go back to those kinds of thoughts and actions.
Many years ago, our CEO Gary Gzik was shopping with his wife and behind a clothing rack a woman stepped out and said, “Hey! Remember me? You taught me how to golf.” Now, Gary has worked with a lot of people over the years and taught them how to do many different things, but he has never taught someone how to golf! He did remember her though and remember that she was in one of his presentation skills workshops. Gary went on to say he absolutely remembered her in the presentations skills but golf wasn’t ringing a bell.
She smiled and said, “Because I was able to get over my fear of public speaking, which is supposed to be one of the biggest fears adults have, I had the courage to try golfing.” You see, this person had always wanted to golf, but was afraid of making a fool of herself. Once she saw that she could overcome one of her largest fears of presenting in a group, she decided that she could overcome any of them, including golf. She changed the way she looked at fear. She took her fear, packed it up and sent it off. She joined a women’s league and found enjoyment out of a place once filled with fear.
What are you missing out on in your life because of a fear? Let’s rephrase that, what would you be doing if you had no fear? Remember, fear is a learned behavior. We are not born into this world with fear. We were born with hope, love and joy. Fear is what we learned over time. It is social conditioning. As children we were wide-eyed, adventurous and open to new ideas. Over time, as we watched those around us responding to different situations with fear and anxiety, we assumed we were supposed to react this way as well. In essence, we began to mimic them.
A Team Human Conversation
Fight workplace zombies in your organization and join Team Human! Gather a group of fellow workplace zombie hunters to discuss our most recent blog post. Use the questions below to kick start your conversation.
If you overcame your greatest fear, what other doors would it open for you?
Are your fears a reaction of the behaviour of your environment? If so, why?
As a leader, how can you reduce fear amongst your team?
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