Feed Your Faith Starve Your Fears
Posted on August 06, 2015 by Raphaela Browne, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
If you spend most of your time thinking about what could go wrong or fearful of the unknown. See how to shift your perspective.
In life, especially when it comes to change, we sometimes tell ourselves all the reasons why something can’t work. We become comfortable with the idea of “This is just the way it is” or “I really don’t want to start over again” so staying in this mindset keeps you exactly where you are. It may not be where you want to be, but the limits you place on your thinking leads to a limited way of living.
These thoughts come from a place of fear and we all have them from time to time. The challenge is not to supply those fears with the needed fuel to immobilize or paralyze you from ever taking a chance to move forward.
I can remember being in a place in my life where I was extremely unhappy, for various reasons some were from being overworked, overly stressed, and not spending quality time with my family. I remember venting to friends and family all the time about how I wanted to leave my job, how I was super stressed, and how I felt like I wasn’t contributing anything meaningful at work, just “busy” without being productive.
I sang this same tune over and over again for several months, surely driving my friends and family crazy. But, I realized that with every complaint things around me remained the same and even began to deteriorate. At the time, my coach said to me “Raphaela, you have shared this story a few times, and it is very clear why you’re unhappy but “What are you willing to do to change it?” Ahhhhh, the million dollar question, “What am I willing to do to change my situation?”
It was up to me to make a decision of how I was going to move forward. I needed to spend more time filling that tank of faith and decreasing the amount of energy I was using on fear.
This question also forced me to stop putting energy into retelling that sad story over and over again, and create a new storyline of where I was aiming to be. I began not only stating what I desired, but made a sustainable plan for how I was going to achieve it. Making my values a priority again helped me regain balance and served as a constant reminder of what was important in my life when I got off course. I honestly could have kept complaining about how horrible my life was at that time, but I was more interested in pouring into how I could make this change a reality.
My faith was increasing.
After 10+ years in nonprofit leadership, I am settling into my new career of coaching and consulting. I always had the talent, skills, experience, and training but finally have the increased FAITH to do what I was called to do and my have I gotten far.
5 minute Coaching Corner
• Identify one fear you currently have that you would actively like to pursue change with.
• Write down what is most fearful about this situation or problem?
• Write at least 3-5 actions or counter thoughts you will implement to begin decreasing and eventually eliminating this fear on a daily basis. Don’t be afraid to dig deep in this activity.
