Ian Heininger is a Coaching Psychologist who specialises in
promoting strengths and bringing out the best in people,
communities, teams, and organisations. He has professional
experience as a psychologist, consultant, couple and family
therapist, clinical caseworker and counsellor and youth worker and
is the Director of Bridgebuild Coaching Psychology
Services.
Fear is one thing that holds a lot of people back from a lot of
things. In my coaching work I find that fear is one of the biggest
issues in people be willing and able to change and get healthy. It
is easy for people we work with to focus on the negative aspect of
fear and let it determine so many of their decisions. This can
happen in their work, in relationships, with friends, in sport, and
anywhwere else you can think of.
I decided to google FEAR and found that the number 1 result was a
game (followed by good old Wikipedia). It's funny how fear is
something that can be so entertaining (like all the movies I can't
stand) but also can keep people in bad patterns in life. I have
found so often that the fear of the unknown is often stronger than
the desire for change, even when things have gotten really really
bad in peoples lives. Fear is an aspect of working with people that
can bring a significant level of change when addressed.
To keep things simple this blog, I have thought of 3 quick
questions that may be worth asking when your working with someone
dealing with fear (or even to ask yourself).
- If you think ahead 2 years from now, what could a current fear
have stopped you from doing?
- If you could overcome your fear, what is 1 thing you would
change right now?
- On a scale of 1-10 how ready are you to face some fears that
hold you back? What is 1 thing you can do to move up the
scale?
Hope this helps some people let go of some fears and take hold of
some things that have seemed out of reach.