We have all seen them, the TV ads designed to catch our attention and entice us to buy now, or miss out on the chance to save. Maybe those deals don’t entice you but you have made impulse buys because you see the need and benefit of the product or service, or it seems like a great idea in the moment. Have you ever taken the bait only to realize that the product or service isn’t what you imagined or thought it would be, or you realized that you need your cash more than you needed what you bought? Buyer’s remorse is the disillusionment and regret we begin to feel when we took the risk and it didn’t turn out the way we expected.
This scenario often plays out more than we think when it comes to being enticed by fear. You see fear is like a salesman that comes knocking on the door of our heart and mind and presents us with a sales pitch that entices us to buy what it is selling. The sales pitch is the narrative that plays on the screen of our imagination. Then, on impulse, we buy in hook, line, and sinker, even though we know we are buying into something that isn’t the desired outcome, or going to work out for our benefit!
Why do we so easily take the bait and trust the pitch of this sneaky salesman called fear? Why do we so willingly invite him into the privacy of our internal abode to sit down for a nice chat about all the evidence that supports the pitch? Simply put, we are usually not alert to the scheme, and our brain has recorded all the past problems and what didn’t work out for us. Sometimes it is so under the radar of our conscious mind that we don’t even understand where it is coming from but it feels so true. Now fear is showing up to get us to buy into his plan of prepare and protect. The good news is that more often than not, we are relieved when the outcome we have bought into doesn’t become our reality!
Here are a few keys to stop the buying into what fear is selling, and stop buyer’s remorse from its scheme.
- Fear keeps us narrow minded but what is the wider point of view? Avoid focusing ONLY on the fear based outcomes and become aware of optimistic perspectives. Being intentional to focus on optimistic outcomes empowers us to see through the lens of love and hope that hold the key to peace and wellbeing.
- Embrace a mental and emotional posture that “it hasn’t happened yet.” Fear projects an image of the future onto the screen of our mind that says we are powerless and don’t have any solutions. We can feel powerless over what hasn’t become a reality so if we tell ourselves it is only a perceived threat and not a real one we can learn to minimize impulsive fear based reactions.
- Pursue growth of stewarding your power within and the wisdom God has given you. You are created to be victorious over fear. When we buy into what fear is selling we come into agreement, and agreements influence our will power, and power of choice. We can’t control everything, but we can always control how we will respond. Ask yourself, if you were to see from a perspective of love and hope and come to agree with that option, how would you respond differently to the sales pitch of fear?
Andra Prowant CADC-1, Certified Life Coach