“Your largest fear carries your greatest growth.”
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Sometimes fear stops us in our tracks and holds us back from moving forward and reaching our goals. During the last decade, I’ve made it a goal for myself to not let fear hold me back from things in life. Now, I do let it hold me back from scary things that don’t sound fun to me like skydiving or riding roller coasters, but I’m good with that. What I do try to not let fear hold me back from is making quick decisions, trying new things in business and doing things that I feel nervous about.
What is it that’s holding you back from reaching your goals in your business? What are you afraid of? Is it a lack of confidence in yourself?
I know a lot of preteen and teen girls that seem to have a lot of confidence and I hope that’s a good sign because it seems like a lot of women my age don’t have the confidence I’d expect in business. Don’t get me wrong, we all have our moments of self-doubt, worry and fear, but I want them to just be moments.
It can be scary to be a business owner with the potential for inconsistent income versus a regular paycheck, especially in the beginning. But I want you to remember that you created the business you created because it comes naturally to you, you are good at it and you are capable of creating a successful and thriving business. But a strong business doesn’t come by luck. It comes from hard work and confidence, even if you have to fake it ‘til you make it sometimes. It also means you have to be willing and open to trying new things and not giving up. And if you try something and it doesn’t turn out as expected, it shouldn’t be viewed as a failure because everything we try out is a learning experience.
Are you afraid that people will think you’re too bold?
Be an inspirational leader and a good example for other business professionals. Move forward confidently and don’t worry that you may be intimidating. At the end of the day, you are working for yourself and likely that you wanted to make your own decisions and be your own boss. So why would you worry about what other people think about your success? Be confident and believe that they appreciate your boldness and may learn from you.
Are you afraid of failure?
Is every idea a good one? Does everything you try work out perfectly? Doubtful. And it’s really kind of silly to have that much invested in things working out that you are afraid to move forward in your business. There will be things that fail and things that work out great as you expand and experiment. And you won’t know until you try them on for size. You may find out that projects or ideas thought would be great turns out not to be so great and you don’t enjoy them. And that’s okay!
As a business owner, you HAVE to be flexible and not be quite so married to the outcome. The awesome thing is you have the power to change, tweak, adjust and learn from everything you do.
Are you afraid of success?
It’s easy to get complacent when we know exactly what we have on our plates, tasks have gotten easy and routine and we know how much money we are earning. Sometimes it can be scary to not know what it will look like and feel like if we do succeed even more than we already have. Success can be life changing and force us to adjust to a new normal. It’s up to you to decide to exceed your goals or stick with the status quo.
Action Steps:
- Evaluate what’s holding you back and write it down.
- Create a reasonable and manageable plan to deal with it.
What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
