Dealing with fear…

Every entrepreneur goes through a period of elation following the launching of a new venture. This period is often followed by moments of “reality checks” whereby the business owner goes over a status check and has discomfort due to things not being exactly what the anticipated plan was. You see, many of us came from the safe (?) world of a paycheck accompanied by a certain status. You already gave that up, though your former colleagues, associates, friends and others were impressed, you are no longer a novelty. No one seems to be in awe with the fact that you are in business as it has become routine and frankly they have accepted it. You are giving in 12 to 16 hours days and somewhere deep in some corner of your sub-conscience you doubt yourself. Maybe you miss your old cubicle, the familiarity of the office environment, as being a business owner has nothing of a predictable bend.

Well, that voice of doubt you hear is actually fear; fear of a new world, and it is normal and should not paralyze you. The truth is the fear of failure disappears when you realize it can’t save you.  Fear is probably the most frequent emotion that any small business owner is experiencing at any given time…It is a bit of an irrational emotion. I remember when I was a student, how many nights I stayed up before an exam worrying to death about the questions and how I would answer them.

When not properly aligned, self doubt, fear, can ruin you. Especially, when you are an entrepreneur because your decision tree is not large enough to deal with the entirety of such an emotion. Surely, it is not only OK but advised to think about how you could provide for your staff and your family, but fear can prevent you from doing important things. Do you know that Fear of the future/ failure is the main reason why more than 80% of people in the world are not prepared to change their circumstances?

Fear prevents you from doing something important in your life. Fear of failure or success can be a huge obstacle to taking positive action toward your desired outcomes, because so much personal esteem and happiness can depend on the outcome.  Forget that you are in business for yourself now; a momentous achievement in itself. But, for whatever reason, fear is there to tell you that you’re about to grow and stretch; so instead what you hear is: “Hang on to your everything, something amazing just might happen”.  All this emotion is for is to remind us that risk is involved in all that we do.

Indeed this is a considerable emotion; one that reveals the will of men at their weakest moments. It does not have to rational to be debilitating. Think of the many men and women who stopped themselves from  considering a new career path, even knowing they were unhappy with their lot.  When dealing with fear the only thing you have in your defense is preparation; reducing the downside so to speak. In the book, The Magic of Thinking Big, author David Schwartz describes how thinking big can help you overcome the fear of failure, achieve your goals, and awaken the creative power within. Wouldn’t agree that the  fear of failure is responsible for killing more dreams and thwarting more potential success stories than any other force on earth?.

When success and failure are the only options, you have no choice but to follow through.

Celebrate small victories today and you will look like a genius tomorrow.