Does Fear Hold You Back?
A biz-owner asked me how he could ‘over-come” the fear he was having about starting a new program in his business.
This was a program that he had never done before and he was afraid to put it out in the world because of the usual ‘what-if’ fears we all have…
Fears like:
- What if no one buys?
- What if the program is a flop?
- What if they think he’s not qualified to offer it?
- What if they think his price is too high?
- What if they don’t show up?
What if, what if, what if…
Do you also have some of these same fears around:
- raising your rates
- adding a new service
- creating YouTube vids to market your practice
- hiring an assistant or other support staff
- renting a new space
- buying new equipment or software
- firing someone
- changing your schedule, business name, programming, or (you fill in the blanks)
You’ve heard what the word F.E.A.R. stands for, right?
F =False
E= Evidence
A= Appearing
R=Real
I thought the answer I gave this business owner around over-coming FEAR might help you, so here is how I handle my own fear.
Head Garbage:
I realized I don’t actually give my fear much thought and I’ll tell you why!
Over the years, I realized I’m a big believer in knowing the worst case scenario won’t happen (death) so everything else is just garbage in my head and can be handled.
In fact, I don’t try to overcome my fear, rather I just decide I’m gonna do something, and then
get the info I need to make “it” happen (whether it’s a new program, new software, new method of therapy, or whatever the ‘thing” is that might cause fear).
Once I’ve gathered enough info on how to do “it’, although it may not be perfect, I just go and do it anyway.
I know the alternative is I could study, and practice, and wait for it to be perfect.
In fact, I used to spend oodles of time with “analysis paralysis” and not get much traction at all.
Always Learning:
I also think part of my ability to ‘just do it’ as Nike says, is I always know I’m learning from every experience.
So when we attempt something even if we don’t get 100% of the results we strive for, we’ll learn about ourself and learn about how to do the ‘thing’ better just by doing it!
We’ll provide the “thing” and our clients will benefit from it, (perfect or not).
They’re still going to get value from it, and ultimately it’s a win-win…
You get better at doing “it”, and they get the results from you doing “it” with /for them.
I would love to read your response from my question to you:
Are you gonna with-hold your brilliance from your clients & wait for Perfect?
Or Just Do It?
Leave your comments below ~ Let’s talk about how You handle FEAR!
I don’t think there were conversions; the phone was just turned on. But it would be good to see the study to see exactly what they did. I could not find that link.
I needed the reinforcement/validation of this email today. I very much resonate with “analysis paralysis” and am working on the letting go of “everything being perfect” BEFORE moving forward … down to the smallest detail. For example … my perfect “intake packet” will never be used if I don’t have clients. I am changing the focus of my practice and wanted to have all the answers FIRST … I think I need to start somewhere and just change or add as needed. Thanks for the nudge 🙂
You’re welcome for the nudge!
Start asap and re-focus as you go. Get traction under your belt and you’ll see where you need to fine-tune along the way.
Best wishes!
When college students ask me what it takes to be successful, I tell them I believe everyone has the ability to be successful. The reason many people don’t is FEAR or LAZINESS. When you can decide which one is stopping you, you tackle it and move forward. I “poor decision” in working toward success is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it. It you do learn from it (and hopefully you do), then it becomes a learning experience. Your brain can then file it under a positive experience to help build your confidence.
Amen Linda!
I’ll add another ‘reason’ into the 2 you list of fear and laziness, which is “lack of know-how”…
The cool thing is though is once a person has made a decision to move forward and put aside their fear, not be ‘lazy’, then they can learn what they need to learn (or hire or out-source someone else to do it) to get-er-done!
If it is something like learning how to create a website, or the sales page for a new program, sometimes hiring out IS the best thing to do rather than spend hours of time learning.
Bottom line:
Take action and don’t let fear stop you!