How to stop fear from holding you back in life & business13 min read
If you’re nervous about taking that next step in business, changing direction in your life, or doing the scary thing you know you need to do next to grow in life or to grow your business, this article outlines how to use fear as a guidepost for creating success, how to leverage fear to create business success, and how to overcome fear so that you can build a purpose driven business and live a fulfilling life. If you’re wondering how to stop fear from holding you back and overcome it so you can create wild success, this is for you.
A question I get asked a lot is “how did you scale your business so quickly?”
I think a more accurate question might be “How did you keep moving forward even when you were afraid? How did you learn to stop fear from holding you back in your business and life? How did you make yourself do the scary thing?”
I created consistent 5 figure income months, only 9 months into my business, and was able to finally take the leap from my mediocre corporate job to a wildly fulfilling and successful online business by focusing on one thing that most others overlook:
Using fear as a guidepost to move me forward instead of letting it hold me back.
Over time in my personal & business growth journey, I noticed the immense power of fear and how it can create two wildly different realities for you depending on how you leverage it.
Wondering why it’s so important to learn how to stop fear from holding you back?
Fear can keep you from taking the kind of action you know you need to take to move forward. Allowing your fear to take over can keep you stuck in a mediocre job, living a mediocre life, and never realizing your full potential.
Alternatively, you can actually learn to utilize fear to take you further than you could ever imagine, in your life, in your business, in your growth.
This article is for you if you find yourself held back by your fear, unable to take the action you know you need to take to achieve your dreams. I’ll outline how you can stop fear from holding you back!
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If you feel stuck in your career/business, unable to step into your full potential and live the kind of life you know you’re meant to live, I want to help you understand how you’re letting your fear sabotage your success, why fear is an integral part of your personal & business growth journey, and exactly how to overcome fear and leverage it to take your life and business to the next level… so that you can finally step into your full potential and live a fulfilling life!
how fear holds most people back & How to stop fear from holding you back
I’ve helped my clients do everything from find their purpose in life, to start their own business, to scale their existing business to the next level.
With every client, at every step in their journey, we come up against fear.
Fear of not being good enough, fear of public speaking, fear of failure, fear of selling, fear of success, fear of losing everything they’ve got, fear of change, fear of making the wrong decision, fear of disappointing people, fear of wasting time… I could go on and on.
Can you relate to any of these fears?
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Fear is a normal human emotion that has been programmed into our brains to protect us from getting eaten by tigers.
Our brains were built to help us SURVIVE – but in 2021, most of us are looking to THRIVE, and our brains are not equipped to support us with that.
Fear holds most people back from leading purpose driven businesses and living fulfilling lives because it stops them from taking the necessary action that would propel them forward.
- You might want to change careers because you’re not fulfilled, but you’re afraid of starting over and so you stay exactly where you are.
- You might want to start a business because you’d love to spend your days doing work you actually love, but you’re afraid you won’t be good enough and so you stick with the mediocre 9 to 5.
- You might want to take your business to the next level (whether that’s 100K or 1M) but you’re afraid of losing everything you’ve already built up, so you settle for the level you’re at to avoid compromising your comfortable reality.
Sound familiar?
Letting fear stop you is perfectly normal and I see it everywhere, but in my mission to support you in creating a WILDLY fulfilling life, I want to be quite frank with you…
Fear is not necessary.
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WHY fear was an integral part of my business success & how you can leverage fear
If you look at my personal & business growth journey from the start and end points, it’s easy to assume it was an overnight success.
I went from making 30K a year working 60 hours a week at a soul sucking corporate job…
To making 30K a MONTH working 15 hours a week doing work I absolutely love in my business.
It’s easy to see that transformation as an overnight success and imagine that it must have been easy for me, or I must know something other people don’t, or I must be special in some way – and to use all those thoughts as reasons for why it’s not possible for you.
But I assure you, it was not easy, I had no secrets, and there’s nothing special about me.
The thing that made wild business success possible for me, and the #1 thing that I see holding other people back, was FEAR.
Fear was a constant in my personal & business growth journey, but I used it as fuel to move me forward, instead of as a weight that held me back.
I want to be super transparent and vulnerable with you, and show you exactly how fear showed up in all the in-between moments of my journey, so that if you’re feeling afraid about taking that next step in your life/business, you can see just how normal your experience is and why it’s not a good enough reason to avoid taking that next step.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, join our community to leap from thinking into acting.
You get instant access when you join our email community, and we are all excited to support you in creating the future of your dreams!
My business growth journey & how I learned to stop letting fear hold me back
I started this blog in 2018 and that was TERRIFYING. Something that seems so ridiculously fun and easy now was downright anxiety inducing when I took that first step. Why?
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I felt so afraid of being judged for starting a blog and thinking I could make something of myself online. I literally didn’t tell a soul, except my husband, when I first got started with a free domain.
After a few months, I was really enjoying writing, and was starting to see some traction, and it was time to upgrade to paid domain and hosting… and again my brain freaked out.
My husband bought my domain name for me because I was so afraid of spending $200 on something that wouldn’t guarantee success. Petrified of taking that next step (which, obviously in hindsight, seems like nothing), I never would have gotten where I am today had I let fear stop me there.
My blog naturally evolved into a coaching practice as I realized exactly how I was best positioned to help my people create change in their lives & grow their businesses.
Well, when I took on my very first coaching client, I was ALSO terrified (are we noticing a recurring pattern here?) I felt like an impostor, I was afraid I was scamming her and taking her money, I was worried that I wouldn’t actually be able to help her, and I was holding so much fear.
But the key here is that I did it anyway (while working through my limiting beliefs and hitting the mindset work hard!)
Time and time again I didn’t let fear hold me back.
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As I continued to support more and more women in building/scaling successful businesses & living fulfilling lives, my coaching practice grew to the point where I could no longer balance a day job with it.
It became time to dive into entrepreneurship full time!!
Well, no surprises here, that was downright terrifying as well! I was afraid of the uncertainty, of going broke, of never being able to sign another client again, basically all the things…
But I did it anyway.
And so we have here 3 very concrete examples of how fear shows up CONSISTENTLY (and WILL continue to show up consistently) in your personal & business growth journey, and how it is ESSENTIAL that you take the action you know you need to take regardless of whether it feels fun or scary!
Because THE THING that allowed me to leave my crappy 9 to 5 and create wild business success, spending my days doing work I love, making more money than I know what to do with, and having a real impact on people’s lives… was doing. the. scary. thing.
So, next time you look at someone you admire crushing it in business or in life, don’t assume they’re 100% confident in themselves and have never had to face the fear you’re currently running up against.
They are ALL just like you. Humans with real fears and hard decisions to make.
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But the choice is ultimately yours – will you use your fear to move you forward or hold you back?
THAT’s the difference between success and stagnation.
So let’s take a look at exactly HOW you can use fear to guide you toward success.
How to use fear to move your forward in business and life
The best way to leverage fear to create wild success, is to do the very thing you’re afraid of.
Many of us sit in indecision too long because we claim we “don’t know what to do,” when in reality, you KNOW what you need to do… it’s just scary and you don’t want to do it.
HOW I got to 30K months so quickly in my business was by recognizing that whenever fear came up, THAT was the right next step.
Instead of avoiding the thing that sparked fear in me, I ran straight toward it, because I’ve learned that fear is your very best friend when you’re trying to create wild results.
It tells you EXACTLY where to focus.
So take a good hard look at what you’re afraid of doing right now, and then make a plan for exactly how and when you’re going to do it.
How to stop fear from holding you back & how to move through it
The way you move through fear is by creating a new association with the very action you’re afraid of.
This is why exposure therapy works when you’re afraid of tarantulas – they put a tarantula in the hand of a screaming, crying, 30 year old woman, she realizes it’s not so bad, her brain notices they haven’t died, and a new association has been created – “I can hold a tarantula in my hand without dying.”
The same thing goes with you and your fear of public speaking, or launching a business, or switching careers.
Millions of people do it all the time, and so can you.
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Feel the fear, and realize it’s nothing but a sensation in your body. You can handle an increased heart rate and tense muscles… choose not to feel afraid of fear itself, and go do the thing anyway!
That’s HOW you move through fear.
This can feel like an oversimplification, but the process itself is genuinely simple. It just requires consistent practice and that’s the part that feels hard.
If you are ready to move past your fear and start creating wild success in your business, having the support of a business coach in your corner always expedites the process of moving through your fears and making big things happen!
It’s easy to use fear as an excuse to not take action.
But the reality is, no matter what level you get to in life/business, fear will be a constant.
Whether it’s all consuming terror, or just a subtle resistance, fear will always be there as you grow and expand into your full potential.
The only thing that changes is whether you let fear stop you or you use it to move you forward.
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For me, using fear as a guidepost of where to focus in my business allowed me to create record breaking income months on repeat.
The same can be true for you.
I’d love to support you with overcoming your fears so that you can finally step into your full potential and live a fulfilling life exploding with joy.
Let’s jump on a free 30 min discovery call to talk about where you’re at in life, where you want to go, and how I can support you in taking the necessary action to get there.
If you’re ready to level up in life or business, book in a time to chat right here, or using the calendar below.
And comment below, what’s something you used to be afraid of that didn’t seem so bad once you actually did the thing?
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