In surveys that I have studied over the years, nearly 50 percent of all people list public speaking as their number one fear, out ranking the fear of death by two to one. That’s surprising, especially if it’s not one of your fears.

The interesting thing about overcoming this fear, like so many other fears, is that it requires facing it head on. Maybe public speaking isn’t an issue for you, but what is it that you find is forcing you to run and hide?

Facing your fears doesn’t mean throwing yourself into a pit of snakes to overcome your fear of them or sit through a scary movie marathon if scary movies make your knees tremble. It’s possible that you are perfectly comfortable living with some fears, but if there are fears in your life that have allowed you to be less or accomplish less than you are capable of, then maybe you should consider taking the following steps:

1. Try to understand the basis of the fear. For example, if you are afraid of flying in planes, did you have a traumatic experience with an airplane?
2. Acknowledge what you are missing out on or the stress, inconvenience, or whatever it may be that results from the fear. If you don’t do this, you probably won’t have the motivation to work through the fear. The old adage of the desire or feeling of missing out on something must be greater than the fear.  For instance, if you are afraid of driving in hazardous conditions, you would list all the problems and frustrations that are caused by not driving in those conditions (i.e. does being stuck inside all winter motivate you to overcome the fear?).
3. Begin to create a plan to overcome this fear. Using the example above, here are some action steps you could take.

• Practice driving in a parking lot under hazardous conditions.
• Drive a few miles with someone else in the car.
• Add more miles driving in these conditions with a companion.
• Drive a few miles alone and keep increasing the mileage.

Remember, you don’t have to be bound by your fears. Jesus tells us that we should not fear, for He is with us (Isaiah 41:10). If you are tired from living within the boundaries of your fears, try taking these steps to overcome them so you can be the person God intended you to be.