Fear is one of the most crippling things around. It chokes the life from your purpose. Learn how to overcome fear in these easy steps.
When I first launched the show back in December 2021, I released an episode titled Slay Your Fears. In that episode, I gave a lot of information on fear, where it comes from, and how it manifests, and I provided tips for tackling fear.
In this episode, I want to take my discussion of fear a bit further and examine my own experience with fear over the last year as I’ve set out to do the work of my purpose publicly.
I think when people look at me, they have the misconception that I am fearless, but that isn’t completely true. Fear does creep into my thoughts, I just don’t let my fear stop me from doing things.
And because I understand the power of shared stories, I knew I needed to share my experience with fear with you.
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How to Overcome Fear
When I look back over the last year, the area where I experienced the most fearful thoughts was when I decided to create and launch my course, Positioned for Purpose Academy.
I was primarily afraid of two things. 1) I was afraid that I wasn’t communicating the importance of purpose clearly, and 2) I was afraid of success. Not my version of success, but how everyone else measures success.
I want to discuss these two areas separately, so let’s start with my fear that my messaging would miss the mark.
Messaging
When I talk about messaging, what I’m talking about is my ability to communicate on the podcast, on my social media posts, and in my email newsletter about the value and importance of purpose, and how PPA is the solution for you and anyone who wants to discover their purpose but doesn’t know what to do or where to start.
My biggest obstacle here was that I didn’t really have a way to know if my messaging around Positioned for Purpose Academy until I told people about it. I had to put my course out there into the world and open it up for review and critique.
This is where even more fearful thoughts came into play. I wondered what if:
- I put too much information in the course
- Somehow I didn’t include enough information in the course
- People don’t like it
- No one enrolls in the course
These thoughts didn’t just come up once. They were repeated thoughts that would interrupt my day and interrupt my planning and creation of the course. This is where I had to make a choice. I could choose to listen to those thoughts and let them influence how I moved. Or, I could do something about them.
In the Slay Your Fears episode I provided some tips for working through fear. I want to show you how I implemented those steps in my own situation.
Decide not to accept it.
Fear is a gift from Satan that you do not have to accept, so I made the decision not to accept those thoughts. First of all, I’m a lawyer so eventually I started looking at those thoughts as things were not backed by any evidence. There was no proof of them.
In fact, I had evidence of the opposite. People were leaving reviews about the podcast that confirmed my teaching was not only informative but effective. It had already started transforming lives.
Replace fear with faith.
Fear and faith cannot exist in the same place naturally. So, if faith is present, then there is no fear. During the moments where fear tried to creep in I had faith that what I was creating with Positioned for Purpose was transformational. I knew I was doing the very best that I could and the material was excellent quality, so I focused on that.
Focus on God’s word.
One of the scriptures I leaned on heavily was a scripture from the book of Psalms that says
- “The Lord is my strength and my impenetrable shield. My heart trusts with unwavering confidence in Him and I am helped.” I would say this out loud. It was important for me to lean on the word during that time especially, because it helped me to focus on the truth and not a fearful thought from the enemy.
Connect with people who inspire you and your faith.
This is so important. You need the right people around you who will help you see the bigger picture. I have a mastermind that I’m a part of that really supported me during this time. They kept me accountable and focused. I also relied on a couple of my friends who were amazing.
If building a squad is something you need help with, then I encourage you to check out an episode I released previously. It’s titled, The Keys to Building the Squad You Need. It has some great info about the type of people everyone should have on their squad of friends.
Through the process of creating and launching Positioned for Purpose, I never thought about not doing it. That’s mainly because I didn’t want to be disobedient. But, I did consider putting it off many times.
Fear of Success
The other area where I experienced the most fear was in my fear of success.
Fear of Success is when someone has a fear of succeeding, but it isn’t succeeding in of itself. What they actually fear is what comes along with success. They fear popularity and being known, they fear people changing around them.
Launching Positioned for Purpose has put me in front of so many wonderful people. This is a lot for me. I’m an introvert and a certified homebody. My circle is very small. I stay to myself. So you can imagine the angst I felt in the beginning and still feel at times.
One thing that really helped when I felt anxious about this is that I focused on the work. I focused on the work and the journey, instead of focusing on what happens.
If fear of success is something you want more support with, then check out episode 11 of the show titled Fear of Success.
Why Do We Experience Fear
In retrospect, none of my thoughts made any sense lol. But that didn’t stop me from going down that rabbit hole. And if you’re anything like me, then you may find yourself wondering, why do you even experience fear at all.
Walking in your purpose is all about being in alignment with God’s will for your life and his needs and desires for his kingdom. When you’re in alignment with the will of God, it makes hell nervous.
Satan and his demons want nothing more than to stop you from doing the will of God and he does any and everything he can to keep you from it. Fear is an excellent tactic because it involves your mind and your thoughts.
Your thoughts that you think repeatedly become your beliefs. Your beliefs influence your actions, and your actions determine your results. If you think you will fail, then the effort you put into what you are pursuing will slowly decrease, which will lead to you missing the mark you set for yourself.
Discussing Fear Is Important
This episode was really important for me because I’m over Satan using fear against you and your purpose.
The enemy will literally do ANYTHING to keep you from your purpose and to keep you out of alignment with the will of God.
When you are in alignment, there is a special anointing that just flows. God supplies you with everything you NEED to do His work. Strongholds are broken, people’s lives are changed and transformed for the better.
Eventually, you have to make a decision. You have to choose between walking in fear or shoving fear to the side and pursuing your purpose. If you are ready to take the next step, then go take the quiz over at pavielle.com/purpose-quiz. Your quiz results will get you started on the right path.
After you get your results, email me at hi@pavielle.com and let me know what you think about them. You’ll get them immediately after you take the quiz, but I’ll also email them to you so that you can refer back to them later.
I’m looking forward to talking to you about them.
Want More?
If you enjoyed this episode, then you may also enjoy the episode of the show about trusting God’s plan as you purpose or this episode detailing what to expect when operating in your purpose.
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Disclaimer: If you happen to purchase anything I recommend in this or any of my communications, it’s likely I’ll receive some kind of affiliate compensation. Still, I only recommend things that I truly believe in and have personally experienced. If you ever have an issue with anything I recommend, please let me know. My goal is to help you thrive in your purpose. — Pavielle