Reply To: Phrasing help on fear of risk belief

Hi David,

Thanks for your post. I am sorry that I misinterpreted your original post.

The key thing is to identify the belief and then modify it so it is past tense.  You seem to have this well-drilled.

“I was afraid to take risks” is in the past, as is “I had been afraid to take risks.”

That is a sentence I would recognise as being in the past and is quite succinct in its structure, but the colloquial aspects of language and the meaning we give to certain words, syntax etc. means that it tends to be prudent following what is most meaningful for you.

Keeping all aspects of a belief sentence in the same tense would be along the lines of “She thinks I'm stupid” to “She thought I'm stupid” (mixed tense) when it needs to be along the lines of “She thought I was stupid.”

As Brian has pointed out in other threads, it is a very forgiving process.

If “I've been afraid to have taken risks” works better for you, then definitely use that. I recommend using what resonates best with you, as long as it is in accordance with the instructions.

Paul