5 Ways to Embrace Fear; Don’t Fight it!

It’s common to have fear when you’re running your own business. Even more so when you’re first starting out. It’s important not to try and bury your fear or fight it. Embrace the things you’re afraid of. Growth comes when we challenge ourselves. What most people are afraid of is change. Whether that be towards innovation or trying something new. We’re in the age of innovation. The proof is in the current businesses filing for bankruptcy. Companies that we’re the top of their game now overshadowed by digital companies. Fear plays a big part in us not seeing the bigger picture. In the end, our fears point in the same direction of not wanting to fail. Whether you’re at a crossroads with your business or need to make changes to further your growth. The outcome for us is completely unknown. This is where the root cause of our fear lies, the unknown. Here are 5 steps towards embracing that fear and building barriers against it.

Get Past Your Fear. Be Passionate and Find Structure.

Sit down and understand your passion for what you’re doing. Understand why you want to do it and what it means to you. You may want more flexibility and freedom in your life. Put building blocks and structure in place. You’ll begin to notice your level of fear decrease. Not because you’re focusing on what’s passionate, it also helps you see the bigger picture. You can even create a checklist. Once you have a structure in place you’re able to see things from different avenues. Looking at everything from a bird’s eye view can be overwhelming. This is why it’s important to ensure you have an appropriate structure in place for your business. Being overwhelmed contributes towards your fear of failure.

The Enemy of Fear is Confidence

When you’re faced with fear or even doubt, it’s important to stay positive. Create daily rituals or habits that keep your mind in the game. Keeping up a positive attitude even when faced with impeccable fear will build your confidence. When you’re confident it’s pretty difficult to feel afraid. Support networks are a great tool to help keep you on track. Surround yourself with people who are successful. Take in their moral support and encouragement. No matter how small our progress is, it’s important to take the time to appreciate. Each step you make towards making progress is an accomplishment. Most people spend so much time focusing on their failures they don’t take the time to see what they’ve done right. This only hinders our confidence and fuels our fear. Celebrate those “small” wins and the positive feedback you receive. With wins come losses. Don’t look at these as failures. Look at these as a learning opportunity. The point is to always improve and our failures help us do that. Forgive yourself when you fail. Don’t dwell on what you did wrong but focus on putting that energy into doing it right.

Analyze the Reasons for Your Fear

It’s difficult when you’re at a crossroads in your business. There’s always going to be times where a difficult decision needs to be made. Whether that be a decision that takes you forward or helps you sustain. It’s important that we don’t avoid making these decisions. By procrastinating we only put off dealing with the problem. It won’t go away but it will linger until you have no choice but to deal with it. Be smart and assess the problem you’re faced. Take the time to check the risk/reward. By doing this you’re facing the problem head-on. You may realize that the worst-case scenario isn’t that bad at all. Most of the time it’s much worse to not deal with the problem than deal with the outcome.

Self-Awareness Brings Clarity

Take time to focus on your inner self. It’s important when needing to understand any problem you first understand yourself. You need to be aware of yourself. Being more self-aware helps bring you clarity in any situation. The more clarity you have the harder it is to be afraid. We don’t know for sure we’re going to fail. But in the end, we don’t know what the outcome will be. Our fear of failure is also fear of the unknown. Bring clarity to yourself to see past the fear. Try to meditate. Meditation helps you overcome those emotional responses that are automatic to our problems. Think about yourself reacting to your fear before it takes you over. If you’ve already reacted to the fear in your mind there’s nothing more to be afraid of.

Prove Your Fear Wrong

Now that you’ve found what you’re passionate about, you have the confidence to act on it. You’ve analyzed all outcomes that could arise from your decision. Now you need to set a date and commit to it. It’s helpful to have someone to keep you accountable. Whether you have a coach, a team, or publicly share the date. You’ve now put it out there that you’re going to do this. With that behind you, it’s difficult to not hold yourself accountable. Once you’ve acted on it make sure you take the time to reflect. Commit to reflecting on how the outcome played out. This will help you prepare for when you face a similar problem. You won’t react the same way to it the second time. You’ll be able to use the structure and building blocks you put in place to solve this new problem. Only through reflecting on everything once it’s over can you prove your fear wrong. Fear will begin to lose its power over you. With every situation that you face you’ll be able to show more confidence each time.