T. Harv Eker explains fear as false evidence appearing real and argues you shouldn't try to eliminate it, just act anyway. He teaches a simple script: tell your worried mind "thank you for sharing" and move forward.
So one of the questions I get very often is kind of, what's the best way to overcome fear? And, you know, fear plays a big role in all of our lives. And anybody who doesn't agree with that, you know, then you're a better person than the rest of the world. Because all I can tell you is that everyone's got fear. It's built into us, and without it, we would never have survived to this stage. So, you know, your question really becomes, what is fear? The definition of fear is not false evidence appearing real. That's an acronym. The definition of fear actually is what anticipation of pain your mind is. And that's where fear is, of course. Your mind is literally a survival mechanism. And its job is what protection. And therefore, it's always looking for what's wrong or what could go wrong in any situation. That's natural, that's normal. And we have a negativity, kind of a bias towards negativity because of that. And so how do you overcome fear? Well, the fact is you actually don't overcome fear. The goal here, instead of trying to overcome it, is to actually act in spite of fear. Act in spite of fear. So, you know, you have fear. You can feel it. You can, you can. You can understand it. You say, what's going on? I'm afraid to start this, I'm afraid to do that. I'm afraid to whatever. And then what do you do? You have to learn to take action in spite of fear. Even though that voice is going, don't be careful. Look out. Trouble here, trouble over there. That's its job. I always assimilated to a bodyguard. And so look, here's a question for you. What would you do if you had a bodyguard? How would you handle a bodyguard who was constantly going, no, you can't go out. No, you can't do this. No, you can't start that. No, be careful. That's their job to do that. Right. So how do you handle. Here's the word. I want you to remember this word. I want you to use this word. Doesn't matter what exact phraseology you use. You must assure. What's the word? Assure your bodyguard that everything's going to be okay. Right. So it's like an overworried mother. What do you do with an overworried mother? You go, hey, shut up. No, that would make things worse. Look, Mom, I totally understand. You're doing your job as a loving mother to try and protect me. I get it. And don't worry, everything's going to be all right. It's going to work out. All right. Let's just get on my side here and support this. Okay? Now, can't count on your mind supporting you all the time. But you can certainly help by saying things that will assure it. And worst case scenario, the four magic words that I always use are thank you for sharing. What are the words? Thank you for sharing. That's what you say to your mind. You don't say, you know, be quiet, shut up. You know, screw you. You say, thank you for sharing. So thank you. Thank you for sharing your information. And I heard you and I appreciate it. And we're going to go ahead and do this anyways. So that's how you handle fear.
