It is not easy to overcome fear and conquer anxieties that may be controlling your life. To overcome fear, you have to understand where it is coming from and why you are hanging on to it. Most importantly, you need to know how to banish fear from your life, and allow yourself to experience new and exciting things.

It’s normal to be afraid. Everyone’s always afraid of something, whether it’s public speaking, heights, spiders…those are perfectly common fears or phobias. But there are bigger fears in life to overcome that may spell the difference between having a successful life or a meaningless one. Overcome fear of failure and fear of change, and you could be getting so much more out of life.

Now how do you overcome fear?

First of all, you have to take the time to sit down and make a list of all your fears in life. Ask yourself why you are afraid of them and how you have been dealing with these particular fears. Figure out what’s more important to you - avoiding your fears or overcoming them in order to reach your goals. The answer should come to you easily enough and that’s a major step in helping you overcome fear. Make a list of your biggest ambitions in life and write down the things that prevented you from accomplishing them as well.

You must also learn to stop listening to your inner critic. Your inner critic is your voice of doubt and worry, the one that always tells you why you can’t do certain things. You may have been living with it for years, but if you develop enough strength and faith in yourself and your abilities, you will be able to overcome fear by shutting out one of the major things that keep you from your dreams.

Remember to let go of your preconceived notions. Ideas you have formed about how impossible some things are and how imminent failure can be can make you afraid of what will happen if you pursue your passions. Thinking positively about the future is a good way of ensuring that you overcome your fear enough to take charge of your life.

One major way to overcome fear is to really look it straight in the face. Giving yourself an inspired push and taking baby steps towards your goal will help you see that it is possible for you to succeed and will help prove that your fears are unfounded, which should give you enough courage to forge on.

Once you’ve finally learned to stop giving in to fear, then you’re well on your way toward attaining your goals. Don’t worry if it takes you some time to reach this level. Learning how to overcome fear may take some work and needs a lot of patience, but the rewards are endless. You should keep that in mind when working on conquering your fears.