T. Harv Eker explains that fear is the mind's anticipation of pain and a natural survival mechanism with a negativity bias. Rather than trying to eliminate fear, he advises acknowledging it and taking action in spite of it — metaphorically "assuring" your internal bodyguard (or overworried mother) to support your actions.
The definition of fear actually is what, anticipation of pain, your mind. 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's 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?
