Fear is the No. 1 issue that paralyzes someone when it comes to making decisions. This article will offer you some practical ways to overcome these fears so you can live a full healthy lifestyle and have control of your life without letting your fears control you.

Some fears are unfounded because they are irrational fears. Irrational fears can paralyze you because you don't always have a reason behind the fear. For instance, if a parent fears thunderstorms and lightning from a personal experience, then it's understandable why they have those fears; but they can unknowingly pass along those fears to their children who have no reason for those fears.

Here is a list of common fears and how to conquer them.

Fear of success

When someone fears success, he may fail to take the steps necessary to reach his goals. This could easily be based on an unfounded fear. Often the best way to overcome this fear is to set up a plan or strategy to reach your goal of success, whether it be personal or business. Another way to overcome the fear of success is to have a mentor who you can work on a strategy with. She can keep you accountable for working on overcoming that fear.

Fear of speaking

Fear of speaking is one of the most common fears. Yet, it is something that everyone must overcome if they want to build their own business or move into management with a corporation. One way to learn to overcome this fear is to take part in Toastmasters. Individuals learn to speak extemporaneously and work toward a Toastmasters certification by giving 10 speeches.

The first speech is usually a three minute speech where the individual tells something about himself just to get comfortable speaking in front of a group. With each successive speech, an individual learns to incorporate both his body and descriptive words to any topic, along with increasing the time of a speech until he feels comfortable giving a 20 minute speech.

Social anxiety

If someone is extremely shy she will have trouble interacting with people outside the family. There are several reasons for this. It could be a natural part of her personality or it could be due to being bullied or abused. In this case, counseling or coaching can be used to help someone overcome her shyness or anxiety by practicing different exercises that teach an individual to learn to feel comfortable when relating to someone outside her family.

Fear of illness

This can easily be defined as an unfounded fear although for some it can be based in real experiences. If someone was sickly as a child it's understandable why he would fear illness. Others, through being bombarded on the news about diseases and their causes, may become a hypochondriac and will manifest an illness even if they're not ill. Often, education about these diseases and their onset, or giving the fearful individual an opportunity to understand why he fears illness will help him overcome these fears.

It's important to overcome these paralyzing fears so that you can move forward with your life and reach your goals.