Turn your fear into fascination!

Draw a picture of your fear.

Learn about what it represents in other cultures.

Wear it as a symbol in a form of jewelry, a t-shirt, a temporary tattoo, etc.

Learn about the benefits.

Face your fear.

Examples:

Fear of Spiders: Native Americans saw them as protectors from storms. Benefits: spiders prey on unwanted bugs in your house. You can face your fear by catching the next spider you find and keeping it in a jar or letting it go instead of killing it.

Fear of Public Speaking: In Japan, they focus on being polite, speaking simply, and presenting beautifully. Celebrating your success is just as important too. Benefits: ideas are conveyed to as many people as you want. Speaking to a large group gets everyone thinking and working together. Problems can be solved, messages can be received, and understanding can be reached all by the audience. You can face your fear by raising your hand more often in class if you're still in school, offering to present even if you don't have to, signing up for a speech class, or volunteering at a school or with a large group of people.

Fear of Failure: Failure is seen in some countries as dishonoring your family. Others see it as not being the best you can be. Sometimes you either succeed or you fail, you win or you lose. Other times there is a wide range of doing really well or doing really poor. Benefits: failure allows you to regroup and rethink. It reminds you that you are human and so is everyone else, but you can still succeed. It weeds out those who aren't willing to keep trying: persistence is key. Face your fear: the next time you fail at something, smile. Ask yourself if it really was that big of a deal. Ask yourself does it really matter, will you really not get another chance? Then do it again. If you fail again...do it it again. And again. Many times, you have an infinite number of times to get it right.

Fear of Heights: All over the world, height is represented as success. The gods are the highest in the sky. The higher you climb in life, the wiser and more courageous you will become. Benefits: height keeps things out of reach. It keeps birds safe in the sky (well usually). It keeps people aiming higher. It makes our dreams more vivid and flying more thrilling. You can face your fear by (obviously) climbing. Rock climbing, sitting on roofs, looking out windows of high buildings, going on high roller coasters, bungee jumping! Learn to look at height through an exciting perspective and see it as freedom, pretend like you're flying.

Don't wait on facing your fears. The longer you wait, the more fearful you become, and eventually you may find yourself just giving up. Give yourself a week. A month. A good time limit based on what your fear is. And mark it on your calendar. You have until that day to face your fear in some way.