8 Types of Fear that stops you from living a great life

Fear is the biggest stopping point on the path to success. There are 8 main types of fear which have a purpose to make you feel weak and stop you to grow in your life as well as stop you from taking positive action toward your goal.

These 8 fear types are just a state of mind, they don’t exist in reality. It is fabricated by your mind and then also it becomes a huge obstacle in your life. So it’s very important to identify these fear and learn to overcome them.

In this article, I am going to share the 8 types of fear that holds you back from achieving success in life and as per my experience, I will also share how to overcome these fears and live a great peaceful, and happy life. So Let’s start…

 

 

8 types of fear that holds you back – 

Fear is a type of emotion that comes when we face some uncomfortable things in life. Sometimes it works for you (like it will protect you from danger) and sometimes it works against you (like holds you back from your goals).

So fear is not a bad thing, it is just an emotion that you need to learn to deal with it to live a peaceful life. In the last article, I have shared 4 practical tips to overcome fear in general.

Now Let’s understand the types of fear that holds you back from living a great life and learn how to overcome these fears one by one. –

1. Fear of the unknown –

Fear of the unknown is generally associated with what happens in the future. You are completely unfamiliar with your future and that’s why you feel fear of the unknown. This is one of the dangerous types of fear that make you feel anxious for no reason.

Because of this fear, you often avoid doing something new in your professional/personal life. You think that doing something new will not be going to make your life better and you prefer to stay in that comfort zone.

The biggest drawback of this fear is it always forces you to avoid going outside of your comfort zone. Because of that, you miss out on a lot of new opportunities and great experiences in life.

So it’s very important for you to face this fear of the unknown by getting as much knowledge as possible about that situation/place/person. Remember that to kill the fear of the unknown there is the best weapon and i.e. knowledge.

To overcome this fear, understand the fear and its root cause and then collect more information about the particular things which cause you to fear. Learning more about fear gives you a base to anticipate what will happen in the future.

Fear of the unknown can be related to connecting with an unknown person for professional or personal reasons, visiting an unknown place, suddenly coming across an unknown situation in career/life, etc.

In all these cases to overcome the fear of the unknown, you should focus on getting more information about these things. More the information you get, the lesser will be the fear of the unknown becomes.

So whenever the fear of the unknown comes to your mind, face it with full interest and curiosity. Try to get more information about that fear and push yourself out of your comfort zone.

“The moment you overcome the fear of unknown, it becomes easy for you to live a life with its fullest potential”

 

2. Fear of the change –

Right now you are living in a fast-changing world. Every day some new things are coming into the market and the world is changing rapidly at a faster rate. Nobody in this world can control this change because change is the rule of nature. It is the only constant thing in the world.

Still, the majority of people have fear of change and they always try to resist the change. Fear of change is also linked with the fear of the unknown because this type of fear also tries to keep you in your comfort zone.

To overcome the fear of change you need to build the habit of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Because on the other side of your comfort zone there are a lot of opportunities waiting for you.

It requires a lot of courage to face the change every time and also you need to detach yourself from the old things. Initially, you feel fear but over a period of time once you become aware of that new thing you feel comfortable.

Fear of change comes when you change your professional career, when you change your hometown, when you change any old thing and switch to new things, etc. At the initial level, you don’t have the energy and interest to change.

At that moment you should tell yourself why this change is important for you and push yourself to take the first small step. And with time, when you dive into that change your mind gets familiar with it and you start feeling comfortable that’s how you should overcome one of the worst types of fear i.e. fear of change.  

“Overceome the fear of change by moving one step at a time towards new change.”

 

Related content – What is FEAR and how to overcome it?

 

3. Fear of failure –

Fear of failure is the next type of fear that holds you back on the path to success. My personal opinion about failure is in reality failure does not exist because failure is one of the steps on the path to success. You can consider it one important step on that path.

Everybody in this world face failure at some point of time in their life. Some people fail in their job interviews, some fail to achieve their goals, some fail to run a business, and some fail to build good relationships, etc.

So failure is not a bad thing it’s common and it happens to anyone in the world. The real problem comes when people stop taking action and stop making decisions in their professional/personal life because of fear of failure. 

That’s why it is so important to overcome one of the unrealistic types of fear. The most important thing you should do to overcome this fear is to detach yourself from the outcome of your efforts/actions, put focus only on action, not on the final outcomes.

I know it’s difficult to implement but this is the way you can overcome the fear of failure because you feel fear of failure when you think too much about the outcome of your action. You want that outcome in your favor every time but in reality, that’s not possible.

It doesn’t matter how much effort you put to achieve any goal still there is a 100% chance of failure that’s the honest truth. So it’s always better to put your focus on the actions/efforts instead of final outcome. 

Because there are days when you will succeed and there are days when you will fail but the only way to win in life is to keep on trying consistently. Even the world’s most successful people achieve success in life after facing failure many times. 

“Overcome the fear of failure by focusing on the process not on the results.”

 

4. Fear of Rejection –

Fear of rejection is one of the common types of fear that every individual on this planet faces in their life. Fear of rejection is associated with your heart. If somebody rejected you for any reason you feel so bad about yourself because you take that rejection personally.

Actually, the main problem is not rejection, it is the fear caused by the rejection that is the main problem. Similar to the failures you also get a rejection many times in your life. It is also one of the steps on the path to success. It becomes problematic when your take rejection personally.

Generally, fear of rejection comes from the desire of getting approval from others. It comes to your mind when you think too much about what other people will think about you and what if they don’t like you, what if they judged you, etc.

This fear creates a lot of problems in your personal/professional life. Sometimes people avoid meeting new people and making new relationships, (in professional life) people avoid reaching out to more customers, reaching out to more companies for jobs. 

Fear of rejection limits your action and you feel stuck that’s why getting rid of it is very important for your growth. To overcome this fear first you need to accept the fact that no matter how good you are still people will reject you, they will judge you.

Face the rejection positively, learn from it and move on whether it is rejection in personal life or professional life. Rejection is part of your life, it is not a defeat. Somebody rejected you that doesn’t mean you are not good so never take rejection personally.

The more you face the rejection, the more you feel it is normal. You can take the example of any successful person like Elon musk he faced rejection many times in his life still he achieved what he wanted to achieve by overcoming the fear of rejection.

“Overcome the fear of rejection by facing it postivily”

 

5. Fear of Being judged –

Fear of being judged is also one of the worst types of fear which stop you to express your thoughts or opinion.  Generally, this fear comes when you think too much about what other people will think about you, about your thoughts or opinion, about your behavior.

The majority of people face this problem in their personal as well as professional life. In office meetings, you face difficulty in expressing your thoughts and ideas because of fear of being judged.

Similarly, at your home also sometimes you avoid expressing yourself just because of fear of what your family members/relatives think about you. This fear directly attacks your confidence and destroys your self-esteem.

To overcome this fear you must accept the fact that no matter how knowledgeable you are, and how good you behave still people will judge you and criticize you. That’s why always remind yourself that you are free from others’ views about you.

Don’t put too much pressure of perfection on yourself while expressing your thoughts, or behaving in a different way. You are human, not a machine, sometimes you may make mistakes but that doesn’t mean you are completely wrong.

Remember that some people will agree with you and some will disagree, some will like your behavior and some will not so it’s ok. Never give the power to anybody to hurt you based on your thoughts and behavior.

Overcome this fear by accepting yourself as who you are and don’t seek perfection, always seek excellence. Because the only opinion that matters is what you think of yourself, everyone else is irrelevant.

“Overcome the fear of being judged by judging yourself positively.”

 

6. Fear of Inadequacy –

Fear of inadequacy is one of the self-destructive types of fear which comes to your mind when you see someone who is better than you and automatically the feeling popups in your mind that I am not good enough. This fear of I am not good enough creates huge problems in your career.

Because of this fear, you underestimate yourself and you don’t take responsibility or leadership roles at your workplace, you don’t open yourself to new opportunities, and you always try to seek perfection in everything you do, etc.

This fear destroys your confidence and self-esteem. It makes you feel bad about yourself and demotivate you every time. Because of this, it becomes difficult for you to take positive actions in life. Over a period of time, it becomes a big limitation in your life.

Fear of inadequacy is very deep rooted so overcoming it takes more time and effort. The most important thing you need to do to overcome this fear is to stop comparing your abilities with others. And instead of focusing on others’ abilities turn that focus towards you.

In the professional career context, you should find out which thing you are good at and then start working on it. Practice that skill and try to acquire expertise in that skill. Similarly in the personal life context, figure out the thing you are good at and implement those things.

Also, find out where you can improve yourself and take action in that direction. In order to overcome the fear of inadequacy, you need to continuously work on yourself and make yourself better and better. Because if you are unable to do this then fear of inadequacy leads to self-doubt.

One thing you should keep in your mind is that nobody in this world is good enough or perfect in everything. Everybody has some strengths and some weaknesses, so there is no point in comparing your life with others and feel bad about yourself.

So set a standard for yourself for what you want from your life? what do you want from your career? and then start building skills according to your passion and strengths.

The more you work on yourself the more confident you feel and less self-doubt you have and automatically lesser will be fear of inadequacy.

“Overcome the fear of inadequacy by working on your strengths and building expertize around your skills.”

 

Related content – How to become mentally strong to overcome fear?

 

7. Fear of Success –

Fear of success is one of the strange types of fear that nobody believes how can somebody have fear of success? But the truth is it exists in reality. Actually, people do not fear success they fear the potential consequences of success or achievement in life.

People have the fear of not being able to handle the success and positive changes that come from success. People have fear of success because they don’t want to take more responsibility for what success brings to them.

Success demands commitment from you, sacrifices from you, and a lot of hard work and effort from you. It demands discomfort from you, it demands consistency and discipline from you, and also demands a lot of responsibility from you.

The more successful you become the more you get noticed and get into the spotlight of attention where many people will admire you and many will hate you.

It creates new standards and expectations for you. People start expecting more from you, they demand perfection from you and that brings new anxieties and responsibilities. All this leads to pressure, stress, and discomfort.

All these demands of success make you feel uncomfortable and it’s human nature that we humans don’t like to be uncomfortable/stressed every time. That’s the reason most people have the fear of success.

The more you have fear of success, the lesser the chance that you will succeed. So it’s very important to overcome this fear. To overcome this you must understand that perfection doesn’t exist in the world, and never run behind perfection.

Because we have the common perception of successful people that whatever they do is always perfect and the same you expect from yourself after becoming successful. But that’s not true, successful people also made mistakes sometimes, they are not perfect at all.

So never expect perfection from you whether you are successful or struggling, always think about excellence and improve yourself. Also, on a daily basis visualize yourself that you are handling the success responsibly without expecting perfection from yourself.

This visualization practice helps you deal with the fear of success peacefully. And start working towards your goal without worrying about the consequences of success. (Fear therapy)

 “Overcome the fear of success by using visualization in positive way.”

 

8. Fear of Missing out –

Fear of missing out is one of the self-destructive types of fear that humans are facing since last so many years. FOMO in simple words is the feeling that you are missing out on something important that others are experiencing right now.

It is the feeling that “others are having more fun, living better lives, or experiencing good things in life than you.” It comes to your mind due to the comparison of your life with others. It is a significant cause of stress and depression and affects all age groups of people.  

Due to more use of social media now it becomes easy to compare your life with others and that’s the reason FOMO is increasing day by day in your life. It continuously affects your happiness negatively because every time you feel FOMO you feel bad about yourself.

But every time you can’t stop yourself from comparing with others, you can’t stop yourself from using social media then what’s the solution to overcome the fear of missing out? The best way is to start practicing Gratitude every day at least for 4 to 5 minutes.

Practice gratitude means appreciating all the things you have right now, and celebrating all the good things in your life. See, whatever you see on social media is not right all the time, even if somebody shows their perfect life on social media that doesn’t mean they don’t lack anything in life.

Everyone on this planet has always something missing in their life, nobody has all the things. Some people have huge money and a reputation in life but they don’t have family, some people have family, huge money, and got all the pleasurable things in life but their health is not good enough.

That’s why it is very important to practice gratitude for what you have in your life. Also Never compare your life with others because comparison is the root cause of FOMO. So remember the more you practice gratitude the more you will feel happy and satisfied in life.

“Overcome fear of missing out by practicing gratitude”

 

Conclusion – 

These 8 important types of fear are the unnecessary obstacles in your life that stop you from living a great and peaceful life. It’s very important for you to identify these types of fear and try to overcome them as soon as possible.

The fast you overcome these fears the fast you can grow in your life and ultimately your life becomes better. In this article, I shared all the fear types and when they come to your mind. I also shared some basic tips to overcome each type of fear.

But if you ask me what is the best way to deal with these fear types then I would say just face it every time, don’t run away. The more you face these fears the lesser they will affect you because over a period of time your mind gets used to them. Right!

So follow the tips given in the article and start your journey towards the great life that you want. If you find this article useful then please share it in your network and subscribe to get more such articles.