Fighter Mindset: Deadly FEAR TRAPS

Overwhelming fear can cloud out all reason, turn our legs to concrete, and turn our hearts to stone. I’m talking about excessive fear. I’m talking about HORROR. Many folks never actually experience this all-consuming fear, and so it is important we understand some of the mental traps that fear can force us into.

When Fear Overcomes Us

Our hope is that we can overcome our fear, but sometimes our fear will overcome us. In life or death situations, being overcome by fear can be a death sentence, so it is critical to always be working to build good fighter mindset.

This article is not meant to cover ‘overcoming fear’ as much as it is aimed at venturing further down fear’s rabbit hole. Check out the following video for tips on how to overcome your fear and build fighter mindset, or scroll down to continue with the article.

4 Deadly FEAR TRAPS:

1. The Panic Trap. Think stuck pig. All reason flees. Your ability to think clearly is gone. Horror grips you. Your sympathetic nervous system goes berserk. If you are unable to calm yourself or someone in this state, then death looms when the stakes are high. In this state, you are easy to kill and can easily cost other people their lives as well. A drowning victim in this state will likely even drown their rescuer.
2. The Retirement Trap. Of all the traps, this one is the most odd to someone who has never experienced it. The person should be thinking about the survival problem at hand, but instead finds themselves aloof. Instead, they are thinking about whether they remembered to turn off the stove, an old childhood memory, or how they really need to re-stain the deck soon. The mind, not wanting to face the current horror, distances itself by focusing on irrelevant and distant plans. Beware this lethal trap.
3. The Dreamers Trap. In this trap, you will regard your current situation in a dream-like state. All of the sudden, what was life-threatening and horrible, doesn’t seem to be such a big deal. You may think that this isn’t really happening, and it will all work out somehow. You may even imagine seeing yourself from outside your own body. Your body may continue to work in some degree on auto-pilot, but you are a little closer to a brainless zombie than the people around you realize. Wake up dreamers. Win the fight.
4. The Broken-Record Trap.  This trap is like the Panic Trap, except with a hyper-focus on one thing. You might feel absolutely SURE that running into the next room is the only way to survive, and no amount of evidence to the contrary will have you see differently. The Broken-Record Trap leads you to believe your response is reasonable, though it may be far from it. Furthermore, it appears to others that you are confident, which means others may follow you to a quick death.