~by Haley Lynn Gray~
As an entrepreneur, you take a risk, you put yourself out there for the world to see and hope things work out. It’s not always easy. So how do you overcome your fears?
My family depends on me to make a decent living to be able to support them. I need to pay mortgage, school tuition, food, utilities, insurance and all the other costs of having an active and busy family. Some days, it leaves a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and my knees knock in fear.
How do I overcome the fear to actually get anything done? I’m not going to lie and say it’s all brilliantly easy, because it’s not. Some days, things go horrifically wrong and I have to pick myself up, dust myself off and keep going. Some days, it’s about putting together a disaster mitigation plan.
I give myself time to be scared and allow myself to feel the emotion. Then I ask myself what will happen if I don’t do something and what the likely outcomes will be. Once I’ve satisfied that question, I ask myself what the likely outcomes will be if I do something. Usually, the answer I get when I do something is better.
I will make myself sit down at my desk and start on the list of tasks.
I have to allow myself to fear things and name the feeling, but never allow it to override everything else.
That’s not saying I don’t listen to my gut. If my intuition is telling me not to do something, then I’m not going to do it because my intuition has shown a tendency to be right. In fact, whenever I ask the question, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”, frequently, the worst can and does happen. It’s best to not tempt fate to show me just how bad a situation can get.
Overcoming fear involves a constant inner dialogue with the voice in my head. On one side, I’ve got the inner voice refusing to take risks. On the other, the inner voice chants, “Go harder! Go Faster! You’ve got this!”. I listen to the latter voice most times and am pleased with the outcome.
How about you? Do you have an inner voice telling you to be scared? How do you get past it?
Meet the Author: Haley Lynn Gray
Haley helps female entrepreneurs create a strategy plan for their businesses – so they can make enough money to spend quality time with their family, pay for their children’s dance lessons, pay bills – and not worry about where the next client is coming from.
Haley is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Leadership Girl. She helps other entrepreneurs build their businesses by sharing the benefits of her business education and experience through Business Coaching.
Whether you want to get a new business off the ground or expand an existing business, Haley can assist you.
Connect with Haley:
- Work with Haley
- Facebook Page: @Leadershipgirl
- LinkedIn: Haley Lynn (Wilson) Gray
