Rosie, your primary fear is

This means that your fears are strongest when it comes to change, success, or personal commitment. When you are afraid of moving forward, you are allowing yourself to stagnate in your comfort zone.

This fear may manifest in myriad ways, but at its center is the sense that you're either unwilling or unable to get to the next level in life. You may have grown up feeling that good is always followed by bad. Or perhaps you subscribe to the belief that what goes up must come down. Whatever the reason, when things are going well — or even just all right — you would probably prefer to maintain the status quo than to take a risk. You might fear that one false move could take away all the happiness and security that you've worked for. You may also simply be afraid of facing the unknown. When forces outside of you push you to change, your tendency can be to become overwhelmed or to stay in denial.

Believe it or not, there are certain benefits that can come along with the fear of moving forward. For one, you may act humbly about your achievements because you don't want to bring undue attention to your successes. You may also be a very collaborative team player, because you rarely feel the need to take the lead. People around you might describe you as content or easy to please. After all, when you're not looking to move ahead in life, where you are can look just fine.

Still, because the fear of moving forward is a large one for you, its negative effects are likely to outweigh the positive ones. An overactive fear can cause you to become stuck in a cycle, which feeds and worsens the fear, inhibiting you from moving past it. When you allow your fears to get out of control, they can become overwhelming. You may find yourself feeling confused, uneasy about your life's purpose, or even depressed.

When fears take hold, they can affect all aspects of your life. Professionally, you may begin to feel very scattered. You might also have trouble identifying a career track or larger purpose for your work. On the personal front, you may have difficulty initiating or staying in relationships, no matter how satisfying they are. At its worst, this inability to connect deeply can leave you feeling empty and alone.

Fortunately, most people don't let their fears grow to these levels. Still, everyone could use advice on how to lessen fear's negative influence so that they can truly enjoy life. Take, for example, Jordan.

Jordan was an extremely talented singer who was part of the local church choir. Although he was truly gifted, he held back when he sang with the group. He was afraid that if he sang to his full potential, the other choir members would be discouraged and/or see him as a show-off. For most of the year, the choir director allowed Jordan to languish in the back row. However, when the Christmas concert was approaching, the choir director pulled Jordan aside to see why he was burying his gift. Jordan tried to explain his hesitation to sing solos, but as he said it out loud, his reasons started sounding more and more ridiculous. He and the choir director had a good laugh. The choir director explained that when Jordan allowed his gift to shine, he gave other people inspiration to let their gifts shine, too. From then on, Jordan took a new view of his talents and was on a path to explore and celebrate his gifts.

Jordan is a prime example of someone who learned to overcome his fear of moving ahead. He took control of his fears by changing his perspective. One of the first ways you can help yourself get out from under fear's adverse influence is to recognize it.

You know what it feels like when you are afraid: Your heart races, you sweat, your breath stills or quickens. These body changes are real and tangible. But did you know that fear changes your brain chemistry, as well? When you're afraid, your brain prepares you for a "flight or fight" response, whereby you can either get away from what you're afraid of or combat it. If there's an immediate threat to your life and limb, like encountering an attacker or a dangerous animal, this response can be a good thing. But when your body begins to create this reaction time and again in response to imagined or nonlethal threats, it can be damaging to your health and well-being. What exactly does a steady stream of fear do to you over time? Take a look at the potential effects. A continual high level of fear and anxiety can result in:

Your level of confidence often affects the degree to which your fears affect you. The more confidence in yourself, the more you're likely to both challenge your fears and have the skills to hold your ground against them. For more information about your confidence level, check out Emode's Confidence Test (http://www.emode.com/tests/confidence/)

In addition to your primary fear, other fear groups affect you to varying degrees. Emode has identified five major areas of fear that occur in most people. Understand that it's completely normal to have some level of fear in each one. There's no need to become alarmed if your score indicates a certain amount of fear in an area where you feel confident and self-assured. That's natural. Also, note that this test was not designed to measure clinical levels of anxiety. If you scored very high in one or more fear areas and feel that you have an unusually high level of fear and anxiety, you may want to consider seeking professional help.

In the graph below, you can examine your fear scores in relation to one another:

Your score on the moving forward scale is 5. This scale measures your fear of change, success, or personal commitment.

Your score on the not belonging scale is 5. This scale measures your fear of being an outcast, not being needed, or being unloved.

Your score on the not being good enough scale is 4. This scale measures your fear of not measuring up to your own standards, being a failure, or embarrassing yourself in front of other people.

Your score on the being unsafe scale is 4. This scale measures your fear of being attacked, victimized, punished, or hurting someone else.

Your score on the losing the basics scale is 2. This scale measures your fears of death and illness, losing your shelter, or compromising your sustenance.

Over time, almost everyone collects both fears and negative perceptions about themselves. Once these beliefs are formed, it's natural to seek out feelings and experiences that support these adverse emotions. That's what the cycle of fear is all about: experiencing a fear, reinforcing it, and experiencing the fear more. As a result, you may find that you work yourself up into anxious states or tune out evidence that would disprove your fears. You do these kinds of things so that you can remain consistent in your belief that you have something to be afraid of. It's because of this conditioning that you may have difficulty abandoning your anxieties in favor of your truer self.

When operating under the influence of fear, you're likely to engage in behaviors that serve to feed your anxiety. Excessive worry, negative self-talk, and visualizing disasters are all unproductive ways that you trick yourself into maintaining and enlarging your fears. For example, you may think that worrying about a fear you have will make you more prepared to face it. But in truth, worry only wastes your time and energy. It drags you down and can make you feel more hopeless.

Emode has examined your test results to identify the primary behavior that allows your fears to persist.

Based on your responses, the unproductive behavior you're most likely to engage in is excessive worry. When you're feeling anxious or afraid, you may find yourself spending the majority of your time thinking about all the awful things that could happen. By focusing your energies this way, you keep yourself from doing things that would be more useful — namely, taking positive action to change your situation for the better.

When your tendency for excessive worry is combined with your primary fear of moving forward, you might find yourself obsessing about your unfulfilled dreams or dwelling on the possibility of making the wrong life choices. Although you may feel like this thought pattern is very necessary to prepare you for action, in actuality it isn't. If you're faced with an opportunity for growth, you will react to the best of your ability at the time. By increasing the faith in your ability to make appropriate choices as situations arise, you can find the freedom to stop excessive worry.

The more you know about your fears, the better equipped you are to master them. Without being held back by negative emotions, you can be all the more certain of achieving your dreams. Emode's What Are You Afraid Of? test is just your first step in reclaiming your life from destructive fears. Don't let the process stop here!

To reinforce what you've learned about fear and teach you some new techniques to combat it, Emode's research team will be sending you four follow-up emails — one a week for the next four weeks.

These personalized follow-ups will include strategies and advice on:

• Mastering fear in your relationships
• Reducing the effect of fear on your work life
• Decreasing your level of physical tension
• Drawing strength from the things you least fear

Look for your first email next week!

Because Emode is dedicated to helping you be your best self, our research team has created a test to help you examine one of life's core issues: fear. By assessing your fear-driven behaviors and thoughts on five different scales, Emode's What Are You Afraid Of? test serves to give you a better understanding of both the positive and negative ways fear affects your life. By knowing more about how to accept and move past your fears, you can become happier and healthier and can have more energy for the things you really want to experience in life.

To create this test, Emode's experts researched a variety of resources in order to offer you an accurate, understandable picture of fear's dimensions. A combination of questions representing each dimension helped Emode to determine your scores and create this personalized report. Its goal is to help you make meaningful, positive changes for your future. If you'd like to educate yourself further about fear and its effects, take a look at the reading list below.

Borysenko, Joan. Fire in the Soul: A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism. (1994).

Britten, Rhonda. Fearless Living: Live Without Excuses and Love Without Regret. (2001).

De Becker, Gavin. Fear Less: Real Truth About Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism. (2002).

Greene, Don. Fight Your Fear and Win: 7 Skills for Performing Your Best Under Pressure--At Work, in Sports, on Stage. (2002).

Jampolsky, Gerald. Love Is Letting Go of Fear. (1988).

Jeffers, Susan. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. (1992).

Keen, Sam and Jon Worden. Learning to Fly: Reflections on Fear, Trust, and the Joy of Letting Go. (2000).

Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. (1954).

Pierrakos, Eva. Fear No Evil: The Pathwork Method of Transforming the Lower Self. (1993).

Skyes, Barbara Wright. Overcoming Doubt, Fear and Procrastination: Identifying the Symptoms, Overcoming the Obstacles. (1997).

Wilson, Carnie. Gut Feelings: From Fear and Despair to Health and Hope. (2001).