Learn How to Overcome Fear and Build Super Courage

Fear isn’t the enemy because it’s the training ground for courage

Watching Free Solo, it’s hard not to feel your palms sweat as Alex Honnold edges his way up the face of El Capitan with no ropes, no second chances, and nothing but his discipline to keep him moving. For most of us, the idea of climbing 3,000 feet of sheer granite is unimaginable. But the real story isn’t about the mountain. It’s about fear, and how Alex manages it.

Every one of us faces our own version of El Capitan. It might be starting a business, speaking up in a meeting, asking for help, or taking the first step towards a healthier life. Courage doesn’t mean fear vanishes. It means learning to move with it.

Where Courage Comes From

Meaningful Goals: Courage gathers strength when we pursue something that matters deeply. Alex climbed not for glory, but because the mountain represented his life’s purpose.

Self-Confidence: Step by step, habit by habit, he built belief in his own ability. Confidence doesn’t appear fully formed, it’s practised.

Positive Resources: Hope, resilience, optimism. These aren’t fluffy words. They’re anchors that steady you when fear begins to shake you loose.

Triggers and Experience: For many, courage rises in response to a challenge, a setback, or the simple act of seeing someone else dare.

My Own Battles With Fear

In the early years of my military training, I was ordered to dive from a five-metre platform. I froze. My legs locked, my mind told me I couldn’t do it. But eventually, with encouragement and sheer stubbornness, I went. The fear didn’t vanish, but I learned that action breaks the cycle.

Later, in the respirator testing station, we were required to unmask in a room filled with CS gas. Just the thought of it made me anxious, sometimes days in advance. I dreaded the choking, the stinging eyes. What got me through wasn’t bravado, it was breathwork, slow, deliberate breathing to calm my body’s alarm system. That’s a technique I still use today to manage anxiety.

Fear never really disappears. You learn to carry it, to manage it, and sometimes to use it.

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How to Overcome Fear