Do you want to have a different future than your current reality? You have a picture of where you want to be, what you want it to look like, what you hope things will be like in the future. Turning that future into reality will depend on your faith to overcome your fear.

You may be sure about what you are hoping for and dreaming of, but at the same time, unsure due to what you see as to how you’re going to do it, how you’re going to achieve it which leads to fear.

I believe we struggle with our faith and our fear which prevents a lot of leaders from achieving their goals. Is this true with you? Is fear keeping you from taking a leap of faith to reach your dreams?

Let’s use the Hebrew definition of faith. That is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you don’t see (Heb 11:1). Now faith archrival is fear. It’s the complete opposite, being unsure of what you hope for and uncertain of what you don’t see.

To clarify faith even further, let’s look at two categories of faith. One is passive faith and the other active faith.

Passive faith is when you don’t react visibly or with your actions to help produce what you’re hoping for. Think of that more as your unsure faith. Then you have active faith, which is your mental and physical effort to actually produce or manifest what you’re hoping for.

Passive faith is just as bad as fear. I want to challenge you to use your active faith to help you get closer to the picture you have of your future hopes and dreams.

A key step in getting what you really want in life is to decide what you want. That leads us to our first step, which is to think different.

3 Steps to Overcome Fear and Accomplish Your Goals

1. Think Different.

Overcoming fear is a necessity in order to accomplish what you are called to do. Here’s what fear does. Fear causes you to rely on your emotions, on your senses, what you see, what you hear, what you feel. Faith is a choice, not a feeling. Emotions are fickle, they change with the wind.

If you wait until when you feel right, you’ll run into a lot of problems with achieving your goals because your choices lead and your feelings follow. Lead with your choices and not with your feelings.

Another way to help you think different is to will it before you feel it. Your emotions, what you see, hear and feel, tests your faith, which is why you have to fight back with thinking differently.  Thinking to persevere, which is when everything inside of you is telling you that you won’t make it, to quit, to give up; you choose to push through in spite of.

You think differently also by having self-control, which is restraining from listening or relying on your emotions and the external focus that tells you to do what everybody else is doing. Having self-control not to do those things will keep you on track to achieving your goals and dreams.

2. Speak Different.

Our second step is to speak differently. We have to release our faith with our words. How many times have you killed your hopes with your own words? Follow the example of The Little Engine that Could. Regardless of his size, regardless of the big load he had to carry, he always repeated, “I think I can!”

You have to encourage yourself. Use your words to speak of things that are not here and now as if they will be soon. When you speak differently and use your words of affirmation and encouragement, you actually use faith as an antidote to your fear.

One key point to help you release your faith through your words is don’t just keep it to yourself, spread it. We have to claim it, don’t be ashamed of it. You’ll be surprised how many people are strategically placed in your life who can help you reach those things that you’re hoping for, but they will never know unless you share it with them.

You have to be careful, however, you have some folks with no faith or passive faith not actively pursuing what they are hoping for. Misery loves company, and it would love for you to take a seat next to them.

3. Act Different.

Our third and final step is to act differently. Walk by faith and not by sight. I love that word walking because the opposite of it is being paralyzed. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Deactivate your fear, because fear prevents progress. Fear leads to a dead end, hope has a future – and yours looks bright!

MLK once said that “faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Passive faith and fear are at the bottom step, but active faith is taking the next step. Acting differently leads to courageous actions that demonstrate confidence when you want something that you’ve never had or those things that you’re hoping for.

Walt Disney once said that “all of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” That’s courageous actions. Don’t get me wrong, courage does not mean an absence of fear, but it’s determination to face it. Passive faith walks away. Active faith overcomes.

You can’t be an overcomer without troubles/fears to overcome. You have what it takes, you just have to tap into it. In order to achieve something you haven’t had before you must be willing to think differently, speak differently and act differently to reach those things that you’re hoping for. God didn’t give you the spirit of fear, he has given you power, love, and self-control.

Of the three steps (think, speak, and act differently), which could you benefit the most from to overcoming you fear today?