There’ve been many times in my life where I’ve felt fear. Like packing up my life and moving overseas alone when I was 19, getting divorced at 24, allowing myself to fall in love again at 25, going back to study at 27, and starting a blog at 28. But here I am. Not only did I survive these life changing moments, but I thrived (with fear right by my side). And now I’m faced with another huge fear inducing task: becoming an entrepreneur.
So here I am. Crapping myself as I embark on launching my first online bootcamp. This whole turning pro process has been riddled with fear. You name it, I’ve felt it. Don’t believe me?
what fear has told me at various times of this journey: You’re too young, you’re not qualified enough, you’re not smart enough, you don’t have enough money to start a company, no one wants to buy your products or services, you’re going to fail, you’re going to have to quit this dream and go work for someone else, you’re not worth enough to be an entrepreneur, people are going to start hating you for asking for money, your friends will judge you, people will start sending you hate mail, you’re just wasting your time, you should just give up, you don’t know what you’re doing, you have nothing to offer, this was a stupid idea, what makes you think you’re special enough to help people.
That’s enough to turn anyone off becoming an entrepreneur but before you run for the hills I gotta tell you something, this is completely and utterly normal. Every freaking person who becomes an entrepreneur feels fear. So, as you embark on your journey to start your own business and start turning pro expect to get scared every day because this stuff will stretch you beyond what you thought possible. Thing is, the reward of following your passion and your purpose is so worth every ounce of fear you feel.
The secret to managing fear? If you stick at it long enough, through the fast heart beats and the nights you wish you didn’t care, you will prove to yourself over and over again that you can do this. With fear by your side. And within those moments of the big and small wins you begin to make entrepreneurship slightly more comfortable. And it gets easier. Fear isn’t so controlling. Fear takes a backseat and lets you drive (until you try something new again).
So, knowing now that fear is going to be sticking around for the long haul, here’s a few things to know about fear to make your journey bearable:
+ Fear will never go away when you stretch outside your comfort zone. Every time you expand and stretch, fear will be there. That means that once you start getting comfortable with one product launch, the minute you start planning the next one – fear comes back in.
+ Fear is there to protect you. Fear is like a crazy psychotic over protective bad boyfriend that doesn’t want you to mess with your current situation because that’s the only situation it knows how to manage.
+ Fear doesn’t want to see you hurt. Fear hates getting hurt. Fear hates this so bad that it will do anything in its power to stop even the slightest chance you might.
+ Fear doesn’t understand your grand plan. Fear can’t see your plans which help move you forward. Fear only lives in the moment, and so in that moment where you’re stepping up, fear just doesn’t get why and arks up.
+ Fear doesn’t trust. Fear doesn’t know what trust and faith are. They don’t exist in fear’s vocabulary. Fear likes to control everything.
+ Fear wants to keep you in a place it knows you’re safe. Fear is scared of change. Fear hates having to sit on your shoulder all day ever day while you embark on new and exciting things. Fear likes it when you play it safe so fear can go on holiday.
+ Fear is happy when the thing you keep doing becomes part of your comfort zone. This means that fear knows exactly what to expect and can again, relax and go on holiday when you’re doing that thing.
+ The next time you decide to step up, fear will be with you. Every time. Fear is like turning pro’s (bad) cheer squad. Fear sticks around to cheer you on to stop, back down and go back to your comfort zone where it can go back on holiday.
Bottom line: there’s no magic pill to get rid of the fear. It’s knowing that fear is there and doing it anyway.