Conquering Fears + Chasing Dreams
I wanted to talk about getting over fear and jumping into what you wanna do with both feet. I mean, let’s be real here, we don’t ever get OVER our fear, but there are a few things we can do to push through and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
As the hubs and I jumped into our journey of building this product-based business in 2020, there was SO MUCH FEAR associated with it. The further we got along on the journey, the bigger the numbers got and my fear climbed with it.
I felt like a total beginner again at everything. Sure, I had a photography business, but I had never taken charge and marketed it like I needed so I was starting from square one in the new business as well.
As we began, we wanted to take things slow so we didn’t get slammed with all the things at one time!
We became beginner marketers, beginners at learning cash-flow, and beginners at where to begin when designing our own product line. It was scary because as we started to dive in, money started to jump out!
When we got overwhelmed, we learned to take a step back and then come back again. Fear will never go away, we just have to learn how to keep putting one foot in front of the other when it creeps in so we can rise above it to keep going.
- The first thing we need to do is acknowledge its existence. We’ve already established the fact that it’s not leaving right? So, let’s say hello and ask it if it’s serving us.
When we are asking fear if it is serving us let’s look at it like this… is it keeping you paralyzed and unable to move forward? If the answer is yes, I would say that it is not serving you one bit!
It may cause you some relief in the short term to say, “Ok, fine!” This is awful and I’m not going to do it, but in the long run will regret come back to bite you in the buns? I sure hope you said yes, because there’s nothing worse than getting a year down the road with the shoulda, coulda, wouldas hanging over you.
So let’s take the leap, push fear aside, and do the damn thing. Think about all of the opportunities that will pass you by when you sit where you’re at and not move forward.
2. The second thing is becoming aware of where you carry fear in your body. For me, I tend to clench my jaw and tighten my shoulders. So this is my reminder to you to take inventory in this moment as to what you are doing.
Let’s take a deep breath together + relax those shoulders and our jaw. Ah, that feels better right?
Ok, so a few times each day I want you to take inventory as to how you are feeling or where you are carrying fear in your body and take a deep breath + relax.
3. The third thing we can do to conquer our fear is to write it out. When I started coaching back in January, she had me start journaling daily, but not just any journaling. She had me writing my thoughts down daily… anything that came into my mind. I would sit down for ten minutes and just write all the thoughts passing through.
At first I didn’t really think I would have much to say… or think, but as I got going, the thoughts started flowing and before I knew it, I had filled over three pages full of thoughts that were passing through my mind. It was crazy!
You better believe I haven’t stopped either! I have never had a clearer direction as to where to go in my life until I started implementing this again. After a few days, my mind started to open and I began to see the direction I needed to go and steps I needed to take in my business.
The ideas came flooding in between the lines and my direction became very clear rather quickly.
I would write out all the fears running through my mind and scribble them out immediately then I would follow that fear with something I was grateful for or rephrase it into I’m learning to do _______ instead of I can’t do this.
Your brain just needs to release all of your thoughts somewhere so if you aren’t a journal writer, I challenge you to either put them in the notes in your phone, record a voice memo, or speak them out loud.
Whatever you do, just get them out of your head so that you are aware of them in a way that feels more real.
It’s like having a bunch of fireflies in a jar with the lid on tight. What happens with them? They continue to fly around in mass chaos because that’s all they can do. But, when you open that lid… they fly free and are no longer in the chaos right?
It’s the same thing with our thoughts. If we keep them in our brains with the lid on tight, they have nowhere to go so they continue to swirl around causing us to not take action + for me, they get overwhelming and I can’t seem to figure out what I need to do next. Then I spiral in my feeling lost-ness and nothing gets accomplished.
So let’s give them a place to go. Take five minutes today and write out how your feeling, fears you have about a big decision you are making or something you want to do in your life, and write down those future goals!
As you dive deeper into the journaling hole, you will begin to see patterns with fear, direction will become clearer and soon you’re gonna be rocking it!
But let’s talk a little more on conquering our fears by moving onto the next point…
4. The fourth thing we are going to do is ask ourselves what’s the worst that could happen.
So, for the business we are starting, my biggest fear is failing. So here’s what I asked myself:
What’s the worst that could happen? We fail and lose all of the money we put into it.
And then what? We don’t have any more money to put into it.
And then what? We still have our inventory
And then what? We reevaluate and come at it from another angle
And then what? It could work, it could not.
And then what? We give up or try something new
And then what? Put one foot in front of the other in the new shift.
Do you see where I’m going with this? When we ask ourselves these questions and go through all of the fears we think are SO big and scary, we realize that life still moves on and we can always try something else or pivot and move in a different direction.
We can also ask ourselves these questions:
Is it 100% true?
Could it be true?
What is the likelihood?
You might find out that the likelihood of your worst case scenario isn’t as possible as you may think.
So, you put yourself out there and think you make a fool out of yourself? I’m here to tell you that others are thinking about you a lot less than you think they are. We all have our own stuff to worry about so I promise you that other people probably aren’t thinking about you and what you’re doing as much as you think they are!
Once we really break these fears down, we begin to realize that maybe they aren’t so scary after all.
I’m here to tell you that we are cheering for you + we'll be your biggest fans when it comes to conquering your fears. If you have dreams and have been too afraid to start just ask yourself these questions and let’s get to work because if you stay stuck in the now, you’re going to regret it later!