Feel the fear, and do it anyway!
Is there something you’re afraid of, that’s stopping you moving forward in life?
Well, as humans we evolved with the fear response – it literally saved our lives if we bumped into a saber-toothed tiger or faced battle with another tribe.
Nowadays, we experience both good fear and bad fear and to move forwards it’s important to understand the difference between the two.
Good fear is the type of fear that stops you running across a busy road, stops you riding a bicycle without a helmet, stops you going skiing without appropriate clothing, or skydiving from a rickety plane. So in some respects a little bit of fear can be a good thing – it can, as with our ancestors, save our life.
Bad fear is like the evil twin… Bad fear is what stands in the way when you try to escape your comfort zone, it says you are safer when you stay where you are.
Unfortunately, for most people it’s hard to tell the difference between the two types of fear. It’s easy to mistake the bad kind of fear for the good kind, but if that’s happening right now, then THIS is what’s holding you back.
Let’s imagine you try and start a new business. The bad type of fear is what tells you that you’re not ready to go and start speaking to clients, that you must have a polished presentation before you tell anyone about your new business, that you need to know everything perfectly before you take the next step.
And often what happens is that we use something external as an excuse – we are scared of doing that presentation, so we tell ourselves that we need to know it word for word perfect before we show it to anyone…
I STILL feel fear and I’ve been running my online business for 7 years. There are moments in my business where I get that little flutter of fear… But you know what, if I had listened to that fear and let it hold me back, then I’d still feel that fear and wouldn’t have met all the fabulous people who’ve joined me on my journey.
Often the fear we experience prevents us from growing, it prevents us from changing the world.
So here I want to share four important truths about fear that I hope will help you move forward…
FEAR TRUTH #1
Fear will never go away if you continue to grow! Every time you take a step into the unknown, you’ll be afraid. There is no point in saying, "When I am no longer afraid, then I will do it." You'll be waiting for a long time. Fear is part of the process.
FEAR TRUTH #2
The only way to stop being afraid of doing something, is to go out and…do it! It’s in doing it often enough that you will no longer be afraid of it. You will have faced the unknown and you will have handled it.
FEAR TRUTH #3
The only way to feel better about yourself is to go out and…do it! With each step into the unknown, the stronger you’ll feel.
FEAR TRUTH #4
Not only are you afraid when facing the unknown, so is everyone else! Phew! It’s not just me then. You are not the only who’s afraid, everything is afraid when they step into the unknown.
I hope that with these fear truths, you’ll go out and conquer the world!