Someone really close to me exhibited great courage recently. They confronted their biggest fear. And, to their surprise, minutes after “asking for business” they were still alive. Courage comes from the Latin “Coraticum”, which means heart. So to have courage is to have heart. The funny thing is that fear is like that old bully at school: as soon as you confront him, he runs away crying. We are not born with fear, we learn it. Babies are not afraid of fire, heights or public speaking. These fears are mostly learned from personal experience or from others. Often, the set of circumstances that created the fear is no longer true, yet the fear lingers. You were bitten by a dog as a baby, that dog died 20 years ago, yet you fear all dogs today. Perhaps comments like “children should be seen and not heard”, in your childhood, still subconsciously linger. Think about it: when you have to make a cold call, you are “heard but not seen”. This is contradictory to how you were reared. Maybe that is why so many people find it so hard to do cold calling.

And yet, when you confront your fears, when you have the courage to act, the most wonderful opportunities are born. Its almost if the universe rewards you for being brave. Suddenly, new vistas of the world open up that were once blocked to you. If you are an entrepreneur, you will suddenly get calls from people who want to do business with you. New ideas will become possible. New and interesting people enter your life. Business will boom.

So write down your fears on a piece of paper. Spend some time trying to understand why you have these fears. Consider each fear - What was its source? Is the initial reason for your fear still there today? And if not - which I believe is 9 times out of 10 - have the courage to confront it head on and banish it from your mind. Take on one fear at a time.