Fear can be an enemy or a friend.

It can hold you back and keep you stuck or propel you forward in an attitude of determination and resourcefulness.

Fear can overwhelm you with worry and uncertainty, making you dread tomorrow. Or, it can make you say, “I’ve had enough!” motivating you to new heights, finally creating a better life for yourself. 

Fear can be good for you when used positively.

Here are six ways to transform fear from an enemy into an ally. 

1. Identify Where It’s Coming From 

To overcome fear and make it your ally, you must identify its source. To take appropriate, productive action, you must figure out what’s making you feel afraid. What’s the root cause of your fear? 

Also, by identifying the source of your fear, you pull it from the shadows into the light, weakening its grip because you’ve made the unknown known. Now you know just what you’re dealing with.

2. Acknowledge and Admit 

Once you’ve identified the source of your fear, it’s time to admit and acknowledge it. Some people avoid, ignore, or deny their fears, isolating them and empowering fear.  

There are several ways to acknowledge your fear, ranging from saying it aloud to a friend or a support group to writing about it in a journal. You weaken fear’s control over you by getting it out of your head and into the real world. 

Once you relocate fear from your inner world to your outer world, you’ll find how many other people are as afraid as you are; instead of cowering alone in the shadows, you will find encouragement and strength as you connect socially with others. 

3. Think Rationally

Fear makes us panic, and panic makes us do stupid things. 

According to studies, our prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for rational thinking, shuts down when we panic. 

You can make fear an ally by using it to strengthen your rational thinking powers when feeling worried and panicked. 

4. Use Fear To Grow 

Fear can reveal where you’ve been holding back and where you need to grow. By choosing to face your fear and grow in a particular area of your life, you’ll eliminate an area of fear while also becoming more effective and successful. 

For example, let’s say that, like most people, you’re afraid of public speaking. But you’ve been given the opportunity to speak to a group of people. You can succumb to fear and let it limit you, or you can push through, rise to the occasion and make your presentation. 

Using fear to grow isn’t easy and feels scary!

But you have to decide who’s in charge of your life and how far you’ll go, you or fear.

Push through your fear to unlock a better life.

5. Find Support

Surround yourself with people pulling for you; take advantage of a strong support system. These are the people who listen when you’re venting about your worries and fears and stand by your side. They know what it’s like to feel afraid; they want to see you overcome your fears and be victorious.

According to research, a support system empowers you with effective coping skills and boosts your self-esteem and well-being. It also lowers stress, anxiety, and depression rates. 

6. Be Optimistic

Whenever you feel afraid, the temptation is to focus on negative thoughts and emotions and the worst outcomes. Life can feel overwhelming and out of control.

The mind is powerful. Why not use it for good by using the power of positivity to your advantage? Instead of focusing on what’s wrong and the worst that can happen, why not focus on your blessings and things working out for the best? 

Which makes success likelier, focusing on the worst-case scenario or the best-case scenario? Why can’t things work out for the best? Further, what’s the downside of imagining and working for things to work out well?

To turn fear into an ally, face it head-on. 

Use fear both to reveal and to ask what you believe to be true about yourself and your place in the world.

Fear reveals where you lack faith and need to grow – it lets you know where you’re weak and strong. You can also use it to learn where you’re being negative and irrational.

Instead of being paralyzed into inaction, let fear be the driving force that makes you take inspired action, despite worry and uncertainty, to unlock our best life.