Starting a business is one of the most liberating, life-changing things you can do.
You’ve made your decision. You want to start working for yourself and you’re ready for the income caps to be off your finances. There’s just one problem — that gap between seeing your vision and getting to it almost feels impossible.
Where do you start?
Should you start?
Can you really do it?
Before you know it, that excitement you once held for your project is now just a distant thought. Tonight’s dinner has now taken priority. But why does this keep happening? You get to a certain thought or particular part of the process and then stop until next time.
Without you realizing it, your fearful thoughts are causing you to react and retract away from your true desires. These fears have become the cage from which you’re unable to escape. So how can you side-sweep these fears and really move towards the dream you want?
Here are three small tactics to help you overcome your big startup fears.
Accept That You Are Not A Psychic
When I finally hacked the lock off my cage of fear and started living according to my desires is when I finally understood what fear really is. Fear is the worry of something that doesn’t even exist. You are worried about something that hasn’t happened. Why are you torturing yourself over events, situations, or circumstance that haven’t even occurred?
That’s crazy, right?
Let it go. Your fears are there to protect you and keep you safe. But when they are controlling you instead of you controlling them, it’s a recipe for disaster. This prevents you from achieving what you want in life.
If you are making sensible and rational decisions, then you have no reason to be fearful of the things that don’t exist (and may never exist). To think about your startup fears is to attract them to you, so accept that bad events may happen in your business, it’s called “learning.”
Reset Your Program
Your mind currently runs on its own program. At the moment, whatever situation you are in in your life means that your mindset has attracted you to that situation.
Your startup fears are part of a mindset program that you have set for yourself, and it plays back to you constantly. When you become conscious of the program you’ve unconsciously set for yourself, you can then reprogram it.
Right now, your mindset is either focussed on successful or unsuccessful thoughts. Each program is set based on things like your experiences in your childhood, environment, personal life and relationships, etc.
Begin reprogramming yourself by becoming aware of your thought patterns so that you can sense and feel your own negative presence. When you are experiencing negative thoughts, your body language will change — your face changes and your aura changes.
To beware aware of these changes in yourself means that you can consciously alter them. Commit to not allowing negative thoughts, words, or actions to enter your experience. Commit to seeing yourself and others in a good light. Luckily, we are all born differently, with various traits and personalities. Our perspectives are different, our skills vary, and our opinions can change. Appreciate this and only respond to it from a positive aspect. Like a mirror with a positive reflection, it will reflect positivity back to you.
Next, contact your subconscious mind by sitting down in a quiet place where you won’t be bothered. Using a pen and paper, write down all of your worries, anxieties, or anything important that is on your to-do list right now. Dedicate this time for you and your subconscious mind. Listen and feel what it has to say.
Why is it not working with you towards your goals? What are its fears? Why is it really pushing against you? What is it protecting you from?
Start off your list with broad reasons, then start digging deeper to get specific answers. For example, your subconscious “broad” fears might include the fear of success. To get specific answers, think about what it is that you fear about success:
- Is it growing apart from your partner?
- Is it letting people down?
- Is it having more people rely on you?
- Is it the thought of extra responsibility?
- Is it the fear of being tied down to your desk?
- Is it the thought of having more work?
Allow your subconscious to have its say. After all, it’s just trying to prevent harm and disappointment. Hear without judgement or anger, only genuine curiosity.
If you can tap into the specific reasons why your fears exist, this is the priceless information you need to turn things around and change the program. Once you’ve reached the core of your worries and fears, it’s time to release them. Speak to your subconscious in a way that is comfortable to you. This could mean speaking out loud, writing a letting, or just thinking the words. Work it out so you can work together and not against each other.
Make a promise to yourself to honour what is truly important to you and what you truly want in your life.
You are taking control and reprogramming not just the subconscious mind, but your whole life too.
Planning Makes Perfect
When you have a plan, you increase the potential of the outcome that you actually want.
If your startup is a one-person show, when you look at everything that needs to be done from the starting point to the end point, the journey can make you feel overwhelmed. All the hurdles, potential downfalls, and new knowledge can make you fear starting a business. But when you have every step planned out in front of you, the journey doesn’t seem so scary.
By planning, the huge leap becomes small steps, and if you can continuously plan the next small step, then before you know it you’re slowly growing your business.
The key to startup planning is being productive and not just busy. The way to do this is to create a huge to-do list. Write down everything that needs to be done in your business. Leave nothing out and write freely, from the biggest to the smallest tasks. Then, section off each task into groups. The first group is for the tasks that contribute to your startup growth only. The other groups are based on the tasks that need to be completed but are not urgent.
What’s most important is that you know what tasks need to be done in order to grow your business. This includes things like product creation, submitting guest posts, or testing your service out before it goes on sale.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it is a scary time to start a business. If you are fearful, your options are to stay caged by fear or to accept, embrace it, and keep pushing forward.
Like I said before, fear is the worry of events and situations that haven’t even happened yet. You can keep yourself locked up or break free and make the visions in your head a reality.
Featured photo credit: VIKTOR HANACEK via picjumbo.com
