When we are faced with a great challenge, something new that we have never done, our mind interprets that there is an imminent danger and we immediately feel fear. Inside the mind appear a series of images (scary scenarios) through which we anticipate a situation that may (or may not) happen in the future. And all this generates a lot of fear.
What happens is that in our mind we anticipate until we create a reality that does not yet exist, and even feeling fear in advance.
Exactly the same thing happens to us when we start a business and our business dream can quickly turn into a difficult nightmare to sustain.
What is fear?
Fear is an emotion and like all emotions it warns us of something, it sends us messages.
The function of fear is to warn us of an imminent danger (challenge), in order to help us.
If, for example, we walk through a forest and suddenly a wolf appears pulling teeth, fear helps us to awaken all our alerts and flee.
Event (wolf who wants to attack me) -> emotion (fear) -> action (flight)
We are also afraid when we interpret that a situation / event can negatively affect us.
When we are faced with a great challenge, something new that we have never done, our mind interprets that there is an imminent danger and we immediately feel fear.
It must have happened to you having to face a job interview, and that just thinking about it made you feel afraid (or anxious).
Well, that happens because we have interpreted in our powerful mind that the interview is something that puts us in danger (even if there is no one to eat us).
Inside my mind a series of images appear (scary scenarios) through which I am anticipating a situation that may or may not happen in the future. And all this makes me very afraid.
What happens is that I am anticipating and I am creating a reality that does not yet exist, and even feeling fear in advance.
We human beings are the only living beings that can do this. That is, create a fear and suffer from it.
Remember that the mind, the emotions and the body are intimately related to each other. What you think affects your emotions and your emotions affect your actions. That simple
Generally people move in a restricted circle of possibilities that we can call a comfort zone, in which we move safely because everything is known, each action leads to a predictable result. In this circle in which we move, actions are repetitive and we have no fear (or we have very little fear).
But if we leave our comfort zone, we enter a zone of expansion (or learning) where we find ourselves with multiple challenges that need new actions, new strategies, new ways of thinking.
This unknown place, this territory of possibilities, scares us because nothing is true there, and everything is possible.
We find that we have to learn new strategies to move and achieve the results we want, and overcome the challenges that lie ahead.
Entrepreneurs who find themselves dealing with multiple challenges move in this territory: looking for clients, finding financing, finding a profitable market niche, finding a place, getting to understand how a financial economic plan works, etc….
So in this new and unknown territory it is very easy to be tempted to make ourselves small and forget about our immense talents and abilities.
It is also very easy to enlarge the challenge we have, and consequently we create an enormous disproportion between who we are and the problem that seems unsolved. And fear arises.
What to do?
Come back to yourself, value your skills, value all the learning you did in your life (personal and professional), reaffirm your natural talents, dust off your knowledge and learning. Hold on tightly to your deepest values, which are the values that are guiding you on your new journey and if it helps you, give help, apply the 5 simple guidelines that I taught you in last month's article to master fear and calm your mind.
And above all, have the humility to recognize what you have yet to learn.
Ask yourself what do I need to learn now to face this new challenge?
From there, you can generate new responses, strategies and actions, to achieve your goals, you can even incorporate new learning that will help you face the challenge.
Entrepreneurs' fear simply alerts us that it is necessary to face a new challenge, and that we still have some learning to do to overcome it and achieve the expected results.
And you, what is the biggest challenge you are facing at this moment of your endeavor?
