Your fears are never going away (what to do about it)
On married life, the antidote to fears, and making action plans
Hi friends & new subscribers,
I'm finally back in Toronto and getting used to the married life.
Although, if I'm honest, it doesn't feel that different, except now I can use my husband's health benefits. That's what happens when you're on an entrepreneurial journey, and you have to cut back your hours, so you lose all your benefits.
I feel grateful that I can afford to pursue my dreams with my partner’s support. But I digress.
This week, I'd love to talk about fears in your journey.
Your fears will never go away
As you know, my freelancing journey is going well.
As I was telling my current accomplishments to my brother-in-law, he mentioned that my story is inspiring. He also has an entrepreneurial spirit like myself. So I'm happy to become a role model for him.
At one point during the conversation, he mentioned how "you probably have no fears anymore."
And I told him that he was wrong.
Fear is a human emotion that is triggered by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism that signals our bodies to respond to danger with a fight or flight response. As such, it is an essential part of keeping us safe. - University of Minnesotta Article
You will always have fears of failure and self-doubt in your journey. But you have to understand what your fear means. Fear means you're interested. Fear means, on the other side of it, it is something you truly want because you care about it. Being fearful means you want that "thing" so bad.
In other words, it's an inner signal.
In the beginning, my worries were: what if people don’t like my content or getting judged. These days, my fears are thoughts like what if my clients don't like my work or what if I don't get any more clients. When I was in nursing school, my greatest fear was not passing my licensure exam and not getting a job. And look where I am now trying to leave the profession.
Depending on where you are in your life, you're always going to have fear.
Great, thanks for telling me that my fears won't go away, now what?
Now, you get to dance with your fear.
This means that you have to recognize your fear of failure, fear of success or fear of judgment. And acknowledge them as fears. You have to learn how to question them by asking yourself powerful questions. Using myself as an example, I'd ask questions like:
Will I be okay if I don't get any clients?
If I don't get any clients, what would I do? How would I get more clients?
If this client fires me, what's the worst thing that will happen? Will I survive?
Will I put myself in a situation where I can't get myself out?
Once you start formulating powerful questions to understand your relationship with the thing you're scared of, you'll be able to come up with a plan. And once you have a plan, you can slowly start taking action toward them.
The ultimate antidote to fears is taking action and getting results.
Because when you prove your ego wrong, you realize there was nothing to be scared of in the first place.
🤔 A question for you this week:
What's the fear that's holding you back to get to where you want? How can you come up with a plan to take action?
Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels
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And as always, I'd love to know your feedback, questions or comments, so don't hesitate to reach out through Twitter or Instagram. 🙂
With love 💌 ,
Jerine