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The Fear Opportunity: How Feeling Your Fear Builds Strength and Confidence
Increase your confidence, feel less anxious and get more out of life by taking small steps outside your comfort zone.
In The Fear Opportunity, Olympic Gold medallist Victoria Pendleton shows just how much you stand to gain by reframing your relationship with fear. This clear and practical book sets out how doing small, everyday things that scare you is the key to building self-confidence, handling anxiety, and coping when life gets bumpy.
The theory is one that drove Victoria to the heights of sporting success, winning multiple medals for cycling across her career. Since retiring, she’s taken on huge challenges, from learning to be a jump jockey despite having barely ridden a horse, to attempting to climb Everest.
But Victoria – and the neuroscientists, researchers and psychologists she interviews throughout - are ultra-clear that the lessons she has learned from her extreme experiences can be easily applied to our everyday ones, whether that’s public speaking, taking up a new hobby or starting a conversation with that attractive barista. . .
In The Fear Opportunity you’ll learn the importance of the stories we tell ourselves and the powerful impact of changing them. Plus, Victoria examines five common major fears and unpacks how altering the way you see them can transform your – can be understood as a bridge to improvement and a way to understand your intrinsic worth, whether you succeed or not.Change – a doorway to exciting new opportunities and a chance to uncover what it is you really care aboutThe unknown – leaning into uncertainty can make you more creative, curious and better able to navigate life’s ups and downsBeing different – in reality, fear of standing out is often a desire to connect and belong; acting on that instead will have clear and pleasurable benefitsDeath – perhaps the ultimate fear, and the ultimate call to appreciate everything life has to offer, while we have itPacked with examples and clear takeaways, The Fear Opportunity is a life-affirming toolkit for positively channeling fear, using it to discover everything you’re capable of, and understand what matters to you most.
In The Fear Opportunity, Olympic Gold medallist Victoria Pendleton shows just how much you stand to gain by reframing your relationship with fear. This clear and practical book sets out how doing small, everyday things that scare you is the key to building self-confidence, handling anxiety, and coping when life gets bumpy.
The theory is one that drove Victoria to the heights of sporting success, winning multiple medals for cycling across her career. Since retiring, she’s taken on huge challenges, from learning to be a jump jockey despite having barely ridden a horse, to attempting to climb Everest.
But Victoria – and the neuroscientists, researchers and psychologists she interviews throughout - are ultra-clear that the lessons she has learned from her extreme experiences can be easily applied to our everyday ones, whether that’s public speaking, taking up a new hobby or starting a conversation with that attractive barista. . .
In The Fear Opportunity you’ll learn the importance of the stories we tell ourselves and the powerful impact of changing them. Plus, Victoria examines five common major fears and unpacks how altering the way you see them can transform your – can be understood as a bridge to improvement and a way to understand your intrinsic worth, whether you succeed or not.Change – a doorway to exciting new opportunities and a chance to uncover what it is you really care aboutThe unknown – leaning into uncertainty can make you more creative, curious and better able to navigate life’s ups and downsBeing different – in reality, fear of standing out is often a desire to connect and belong; acting on that instead will have clear and pleasurable benefitsDeath – perhaps the ultimate fear, and the ultimate call to appreciate everything life has to offer, while we have itPacked with examples and clear takeaways, The Fear Opportunity is a life-affirming toolkit for positively channeling fear, using it to discover everything you’re capable of, and understand what matters to you most.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 26, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Fear Opportunity by Victoria Pendleton was an interesting read on How Feeling Your Fear Builds Strength and Confidence especially as I found this book very relatable and it made me notice my own everyday life fears. Everyone has a fear of something and you don't need to be famous or Olympian like the author Victoria Pendleton, but to realise you have one and to make a start to deal with it.
So this book was an inspiration to others and we are Normal and it is a normal feeling to feel like this......Yes Normal.
But, it is the first step to deal with it so reading this book was my first step! Could it be Yours?
Big Thank you for NetGalley and Pan Macmillan | Bluebird for my ARC.
So this book was an inspiration to others and we are Normal and it is a normal feeling to feel like this......Yes Normal.
But, it is the first step to deal with it so reading this book was my first step! Could it be Yours?
Big Thank you for NetGalley and Pan Macmillan | Bluebird for my ARC.
June 1, 2026
I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately it just didn't hit well for me.
Some of the information is relevant for everyone, but as an autistic person i feel like there were parts of this book that i could not relate to.
Maybe it will be more helpful for neurotypical people.
Some of the information is relevant for everyone, but as an autistic person i feel like there were parts of this book that i could not relate to.
Maybe it will be more helpful for neurotypical people.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews