Analysis Paralysis: How to Shake Off A Crippling Fear of Investing
November 3, 2018
Fear of investing in general is truly reasonable. You are taking a risk. There is a potential for loss, failure and disappointment. Who isn’t afraid of these things on some level at one time or another. It is a real threat indeed. The fear that makes you tremble is simply making you aware of it.
Unfortunately, that very normal, reasonable and healthy response could also become irrational, obsessive and paralyzing. The paralysis of analysis can leave us with a path of missed opportunities behind us.
Missed opportunities are ironically more painful failures than having tried and experienced a loss. In the end those perceived failures are stepping stones and check points on the path to success.
Most of us experience fear when facing the unknown future or something new. Aside from that, the fear of failure is one of the most common fears known to humanity.
Investing your hard earned cash and limited time requires you to face a very uncertain and unknown future. There is a very real threat of failure and each deal is new. Wow! Now that’s a whole lot of fear inducing circumstances to tackle at once!
The first key to overcoming fear is to face it squarely. When you do that you know exactly what you are up against. When you need to overcome your fear of investing, acknowledge that you feel afraid and examine what it is exactly that you fear.
Second, The phrase practice makes perfect contains a partially correct statement. Practice is a key to overcoming fear. By taking a leap and just doing the very thing you fear, you will gain the upper hand in the battle.
Third, your voice of fear is a liar. Although, fear often operates as alert to danger, it more often is a false alarm. If you can listen long enough to hear what the fear is, then you can determine if the threat is real.
Is the fear telling you that you are going to screw up everything you ever try? That’s a enormous exaggeration. While you may not perform a perfect act, you will learn to do it better next time. You have succeeded at a lot or you wouldn’t be reading this.
Don’t try to argue this in your head. This a a good time to break out the journal and write out what fear is trying to tell you. You will find that as you write it out it sounds genuinely ridiculous and maybe humorous. The fear will lose its grip when you realize that it isn’t a big bad monster. It’s just a scared bully.
The feeling of successfully overcoming your fear is cumulative. The more steps you take, the more courageous you become. The grip of fear will loosen and the bully will shrink back into the cave where it came from once you realize that you can and must fight back.
Needing to overcome the fear of investing? Dan recommends reading “Ready, Fire, Aim” Zero to $100 MILLION IN NO TIME FLAT by Michael Masterson