Embrace Your Fears

There are many motivating factors that have been thrown your way last year.  The economy is one of the big ones.  Whether or not your customers can keep buying from you made a huge impact on your business.  The fear of the unknown is what held you back or moved you forward with the hope of getting ahead of your competition.  Fear is a process, not just an emotion.  When you learn to use it to your advantage, you will find more success in business and in your personal life.

Readers of this blog know that we have a specific philosophy that we follow to grow businesses.  Having the right mindset to make changes happen is the key to all growth.  Knowing that fearful situations is one thing that most people run from, we are going to make using fear an advantage and create small wins.

Let’s start with what scares you.  Speaking in front of a crowd is still one of the top three fears in the world.  When you are forced to speak to a large group of people, do you seize up or do you use the anxiety to give more energy to your speech?  My bet is that most of you are using that energy to drive your words to connect with your audience.  That anxiety, that fear of failure in front of a group of peers is a driving force.  When you finish speaking and sit down you have a small win.  The event happened, you did well, and now you can reap the rewards of having lead the conversation.

Now, let’s move from one fear to another.  When you have to open your business for the day, do you have any idea how many customers you will have spend money with you?  Of course not.  There is a fear inside that no one will show up and you will be stuck with rent to pay, payroll to cover, and have stock sitting on shelves getting dusty.  Do you open for business anyway?  Yes you do.  Small Win!  Too simple?  Not for all the people who give up on their business and walk away.  It happens every day.

I mentioned earlier that embracing fear is a process.  Let’s start on that now that you know you handle fear every day and survive.

Step One:  Know what scares you

I have spent time with some of the most powerful people in business.  They know everything about themselves and use their strengths to keep their power in business.  They also know what they are not good at or just dislike.  They would never call it fear, but that is what it is.  Donald Trump is a prime example of a guy who is terrified of not having millions and millions of dollars.  Take the money away and he is a pushy guy with bad hair.  The fear of being without money is what gives him the drive to make money.  What scares you?  Have you thought about it or do you just walk through your day without knowing what motivates you?

Step Two:  Surround yourself with successful people

You have to look at the fact that you are not the big man on campus when you are surrounded with great people.  Especially if you hire them to help you be successful.   I recommend you hire as many successful people as you can.  There is power source that comes from pushing past the fear of coming in second place to someone who works for you.  Remember, they work for you.  You pay these outstanding people and have seen something in you that makes them want to help you be better.  It isn’t just a compliment, it’s a reward to be around great people.  How many businesses fail because the leader won’t hire someone who could push them out of a job?  It happens at every company.  Fear holds people back.

Step Three:   Be clear on your vision

Remember, we hate mission statements here at Business Bulldog but, we love vision statements.  Visions statements tell the story of why you want to be successful.  It draws a map of how you are going to get to your goals and paints a picture of what it will look like when you are there.  How many bosses did this for you since you started working?  Would it have taken a lot fear out of the job you were doing if you have a clear picture of how you fit in?  Of course it would have and you would be the biggest fan of the company and that boss if he had.  OK, so what are you going to do?  Take the time to sit and think things through.  Don’t just make a list of needed items and people for a project, goal, etc.  Maps, timelines, and stories go hand-in-hand.  It makes you have to think about how to explain why you want something rather than just dictating that it gets done.

When you start getting worried about things this year, start thinking about how you can use that fear and why you have it in the first place.  Fear isn’t a bad thing, not facing your fear is.