CC Podcast Episode 4 | Fear: 6 Steps to “Fear Not”
Kieran Lenahan (host): Welcome to Christian Crossroad Podcast, I’m your host Kieran Lenahan.
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With that, let’s jump into today’s episode.
Today I want to talk about failure - specifically fear of failure.
So let’s start with what Scripture has to say, and then dive into a practical exercise that can help you overcome your fear.
Scripture
There are hundreds of verses about fear in the Bible, but we’ll stick with three here that are pretty well known. There is context to each of these verses, but we’re not going to dive into that here. What I want to highlight is some of the underlying principles operating underneath them.
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
There’s a relationship between his presence and fear. Here, God says to not fear BECAUSE he is with us. The amount of fear we experience is often correlated with the extent to which we are aware of God’s presence. So as our awareness increases, fear decreases.
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7
So God gave us power, love, and self-control, not a spirit of fear. We have the ability to fear, but we weren’t given a spirit of fear, where we should be all-consumed by it.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4:18
So fear and love are like oil and water - they don’t mix. Often times, our fear prevents us from doing something that can help other people because we’re afraid of failure or judgement. Perfect love would prioritize serving others above our fears and doubts. Love is sacrificial in that sense and puts the other first.
Fear focuses on what I can’t do,” Faith focuses on what God CAN do
Fear puts a focus on “what if this worst case scenario happens? Oh my gosh, I can’t do that.” There’s the silly example of you being in front of a large crowd and your pants fall down and everyone sees your underwear, right? It’s a ridiculous fear that probably has a less than 1% chance of happening. But that fear is SO LARGE that it prevents us from taking an action.
”We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca
Fear puts self-limitations and ceilings on what we can do. But the God of the Bible is a God of abundance and of no limitations. What we think is impossible, God can do in and through us.
A saying that I heard a few years ago that has stuck with me is this: How do you tell the difference between fear and faith? Fear typically tells you what not to do, and faith typically nudges you to do something.
Fear is focused on ourselves and what we can’t do - faith is focused on God and what he can do. Sometimes we don’t need confidence, we need confidence in God.
So, let your faith be bigger than your fear.
Helpful Resource
There is an effective 6-Step Process that helped me take the leap into entrepreneurship, and it’s something I refer back to and use for myself over and over when I come up against fears, which happens all the time.
If you experience fear, that’s a good thing - that means you’re at a place where you can stretch yourself and expand your comfort zone.
I’ll outline the 6 steps at a high level, go into a bit more detail on each step, and then recap them and share where you can get a PDF that summarizes this. It’s an exercise called Fear-Setting, like Goal-Setting but with fears. Here are the 6 steps:
Define the goal you have (around which you have fear)
Define your fear or fears, specifically.
Write down how you could prevent the fear from coming true.
Write down all the ways you could recover if your fear does come true.
Reflect on how you could benefit from even a partial success
Reflect on the cost of inaction
So, let’s go in a tiny bit deeper on each of these steps.
1. Define the goal you have (around which you have fear)
What is the goal you have? It doesn’t have to be a huge goal. It could be a small step in a larger goal, like building a website, or reaching out to potential clients. What action are you delaying, dreading, avoiding, procrastinating?
2. Define your fear or fears, specifically
What are you afraid of? What are you afraid might happen if you take that step towards your goal? Is it fear of rejection? Fear of success, even? Fear of the unknown? Fear of being judged? Wondering what will other people think?
3. Write down how you could prevent the fear from coming true.
What could you do to prevent these things from happening? If prevention is not possible, what could you do to minimize the impact of them?
4. Write down all the ways you could recover if your fear does come true.
If your fear happened, what could you do to fix it, recover, or repair the situation? Has someone less driven or clever found a way to recover from the situation?
5. Reflect on the benefits of even a partial success.
What if you accomplished half of what you set out to accomplish? What would you learn? How could that help you move forward?
6. Reflect on the cost of inaction.
What would it cost you to maintain the status quo? Mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually? What would those costs be 3, 6, and 12 months down the road?
Often times when I do this exercise, I realize that my fear of this last piece - what would happen if I don’t go after what I want - is much bigger than whatever I was afraid of in the first place. When I was considering leaving my corporate job, I knew that the emotional cost of me wondering for the rest of my life, “What if I tried to start my own business?” would eat at me and make me really unhappy, with a lot of regret.
Summarizing
“I learned that courage was the not absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” – Nelsen Mandela
If you are have a goal and want to take an action, but you are delaying or procrastinating, it’s helpful to:
Define it in a very specific way, think through all the ways you could prevent your fear from coming true, and then think through how you could recover if it somehow did come true.
Then, define the benefits of even a partial success.
Lastly, consider the cost of inaction.
As always, we can bring our fears to God through prayer and leave them at His feet - and he gives us Christ-like faith in return.
I created a PDF to help facilitate this exercise, which you can find at LenahanCoaching.com/shorticles/fear.
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