3 Steps to Transform your Fear into Fuel for your Future

Have you ever found yourself being really excited about some new opportunity, such as a new business venture or project only to find that your excitement eventually dissipates into fear? You might have started out with a strong sense that this is the right next step but eventually you start second guessing your decision or convincing yourself it’s not a good idea or even rationalizing why it would be better to stay right where you are. Sound familiar?!

This week as I contemplated a big decision to move to a different part of town, I was reminded of the enormous potential fear has to keep us stuck. When fear shows up in our lives, many of us believe it is showing us that we’ve made the wrong decision or chosen the wrong path or should not move forward with our new opportunity.

While that might be the case, most often fear is a normal step in the change process and it’s important to discern whether fear is showing up to guide you or to hold you back. Doing so will allow you to transform your fears into fuel for your future and I have three steps to guide you in that process.

We live in a predominantly fear based culture and it’s all too easy to let our fears to shake our confidence, doubt our intuition and create inner turmoil. As wom-entrepreneurs, our mindset, our energy and our attitude is the difference between surviving and thriving in life and business.

So what’s the first step you can take when you contemplate an opportunity or make that big decision and fear presents itself:
1. Expect Fear

That’s right, expect it! Fear will never go away. You will never not have any fear whatsoever. Athletes, people in the public eye and other experts in their field will tell you that they still feel fear when they take the stage for instance.

Even though we have evolved eons since our primitive ancestors, certain parts of the brain have not and so our brain is still protecting us as if we’re running from wild animals on a daily basis! What most people don’t realize is that this is not only true for physical danger, but also emotional and mental danger. When we contemplate things such as a new venture, it triggers this response inside that says “Oh no, what if...”.

Fear is a normal part of our nervous system so rather than decide that because you have fear, something is wrong or this might not be the right decision, expect fear to show up. It actually has something really important to share with you. Are you ready to know what that is?

2. Acknowledge Fear

When fear shows up it is information. It’s letting you know that there is something inside of you that needs attention. Some part of you is not feeling safe and is most likely telling yourself really unpleasant things such as “I know I’m not smart enough”, “I can’t handle this”, “I’m not good enough”, “I’m too old” and the list goes on and on! So now is the time to be very inquisitive about what is going on inside the magical place that is you and ask yourself questions such as:

“What am I most afraid of?” “What do I believe is true about myself?”

What you will most likely find if you take the time to explore, is a whole bunch of limiting thoughts and beliefs about yourself which mostly stem from past experience.

If you’ve ever failed at something or felt rejected or not smart enough, this is the time when that will come back to you. And you’ll remember it as if it happened yesterday! This is a really good time to get support from a Coach or Practitioner and utilize some of the amazing clearing and healing techniques such as EFT, LifeLine or EMDR.

Once you have acknowledged and dealt with the fears of the past, it frees you up to be fully in the present which leads to the next step.

3. Embrace Fear

Now you can begin to decipher fear in terms of the present moment. And what you will probably find is that there are things you need to do - action steps that you need to take to prepare yourself for life after your big decision. So you might ask yourself:

How do I need to grow myself in order to take the next step?
In what ways can I better prepare myself?
What would need to change in order for me to make this decision?

This is where you get real clear on what needs to happen in order for you to be successful and then create a plan of action.

When you take each step sequentially, they integrate into a powerful system to get you past your fears and into the next big opportunity for yourself and your life. This three step system is what I have used in my own life personally to go from years of struggling with jobs I disliked and depression to now loving and living my dreams and helping women awaken their true potential and purpose. So, now that you have your fears handled, what’s next for you?