Our SPEARity business coaches and consultants have discovered something over the years—fear is a part of many of the challenges people face in business.
1. Accept that you feel afraid
Fear is something we all experience. However, successful business leaders have learned how to feel fear and not let it stop them from doing the thing they are trying to do. When we look at these people, it’s easy to believe that they simply don’t feel afraid, but that’s usually not true.
We all will feel fear at times, especially when trying something new or outside of our comfort zones. But we can learn how to feel the fear, accept that it’s how we feel, but not let it make our decisions for us. It’s good to acknowledge that you feel afraid, but don’t let it control you. Don’t allow your fear to stop you. Instead, feel the fear and do the thing anyway. Once you start taking action, some of those feelings will start to subside, and you’ll likely find it’s not as scary as it felt in the beginning.
2. Ask yourself where your fear is coming from
Fear doesn’t feel good, so it’s tempting to try to ignore it, brush it away, or move away from it. However, we can learn a lot about ourselves and where we have room to grow by understanding where our fear is coming from.
For example, many small business owners experience feelings of fear when talking about the financial side of their business. If you can relate, it can help to ask yourself, “why?” Why do you start feeling afraid when thinking about or talking about money? Is it that you don’t understand business financials, so you’re not sure what the reality of your situation looks like? Is it that you know there isn’t enough money coming in to keep the bills paid?
When you dig into why you’re feeling afraid, it can help you see what next steps you need to take to continue growing yourself and your business.
3. Set goals related to your fear
Let’s continue with the business financials example from above. If you have fear around your business finances, start setting goals in that area. If you don’t understand them, take action and connect with a business coach or financial expert that can teach you what you need to know. Or, if you aren’t making enough money, look at the reality of your situation to see what adjustments or pivots you can make to make more or reduce spending.
You may not be able to tackle it all at once. But you can start small. Set some small goals with actionable tasks you can take to begin conquering the area of fear in your business.
4. Change how you feel about failure
Are you afraid to fail? You’re not alone; many people are afraid of failure. But, fear of failure can keep you stuck and stop you from taking action in your business. It is generally better to try something, fail, and learn from it than to stay stuck in fear and not do anything. Why? Because you can learn from your failures. If you never try anything, you’re not going to gain that knowledge and find the areas in which you can improve and grow.
Failures aren’t the end of the road. When you fail at something, it’s an opportunity to learn. You can ask yourself questions like “what went wrong?” and “what would I do differently next if I were doing that again?”
This process allows you to realign your failures and continue working toward success instead of staying stuck.
If you are held back by fear in your business, we encourage you to find a mentor or coach who can help guide you through your obstacles so you can continue pushing forward and growing. Contact us today if you’re interested in learning about the SPEARity business services that can help.
