How many times has fear stood in the way of you doing or achieving something amazing? I’ve interviewed a lot of successful people on my Podcast, and I always ask them what they think keeps people from achieving their dreams. They all have the same answer: fear. Fear is what prevents people from succeeding. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown and fear of not knowing how to do something.
If you look at the billionaires, superstars and great minds of our time you’ll find that they have one thing in common- they’re not afraid of failure and they never let fear stand in the way of them getting what they want. Fear is one of the biggest things keeping you from achieving massive success! But if everything you want is on the other side of fear, then surely it’s worth overcoming?
HERE’S HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR FEAR:
Imagine yourself at the age of 80:
The only thing scarier than failure is regret. A quick way to assess whether you really want something is to imagine yourself when you are 80 years old, nearing the end of your life, and having not achieved any of your dreams. What are your regrets? What do you wish you had made more time for? What do you wish you had tried?
If you think you’ll regret anything later on in life, then you shouldn’t be letting anything stand in your way of doing that thing.
Start believing in yourself:
Low self-esteem and low confidence can stand in the way of you believing that you can do something and really deliver. This belief system can cause many problems. A great way to build confidence is to focus on the little wins. Small wins can help you feel good about yourself and remind you that you’re getting somewhere.
Stop thinking that everything needs to be perfect:
Entrepreneurs often think that everything needs to be perfect before they go into business. But what if something was good yet profitable, instead of being perfect and not profitable? It’s really important that you get going on your journey rather than waiting for perfection. You can always learn along the way!
Don’t worry about your lack of experience:
Many individuals fear that they don’t have the right amount of experience to be a great entrepreneur. But the reality is that every successful entrepreneur has to start somewhere. They may not have had the experience or the knowledge when they started out, but they learnt as they went along. The best lessons and the best experience that you can get is by trying and doing.
Failure can sometimes be a good thing:
Failure, disappointment, and dead-ends can help refine what it is that you really want. These can all be used as a means of reflecting and saying, “This didn’t work. How can I make it work better?” Remember that fear is only in your mind. Humans are built to adapt and deal with failure and diversions. Use each experience as a tool to help you learn more about yourself and what you really want.
Failure isn’t actually as scary as you think. It may sound bizarre to you, but the best cure for your fear is the realisation that you WILL fail. Any successful person will agree that it’s just part of the process. Failure offers insights and inherently corrects the faulty ways of approaching a problem. There is no teacher as impactful as the sting of failure. Use these experiences to adjust your strategy and then start again.
