Did you enter into your career or business with the idea that you would fail? Of course not! You most likely had a combination of hopes and fears and when the decision making was over, hopes won and fear begrudgingly trailed along on your new journey. Are they still there – the fear…are they still trailing after you? Take a good look, turn around and see what fear is doing to you and your ability to succeed.
Fear of making calls, fear of rejection, fear of looking silly or not knowing. Fear that keeps you in your chair instead of out in the community making new connections. Fear interferes with action, it inserts its sinister self right smack in the middle between you and the action you need to take. To get the results you would like to have your business needs activity, your business needs you to take action. Fear is self generated – a confusing cycle that is a mishmash of real or perceived experiences along with a projection of anxieties concerning what might happen in the future.
The key to overcoming fear is to set something beside it that is much more attractive. You need to be passionately connected to your success – you need to know what it look likes, feels like, tastes like and you need a vivid image of yourself being successful. When you are connected to an idea, vision or goal of yourself being “successful” you can shift your energies into the actions that drive you to that success. For example; if success to you means you get to golf three days a week, then you need to identify an incentive – a mini success goal such as treating yourself to a day of golf when you contact ten clients for a referral. The incentive for you is the day of golf – it is your reward for accomplishing your mini success goal of asking ten clients to provide you with referrals. If the fears you have around contacting clients and asking for referrals is overcome by your desire to take a week-day out of the office and golf you will engage in the actions your business needs from you, in this case ten conversations with clients in which you ask for a referral.
To set yourself up to remove fear as a
1. Take a sheet of paper and divide it into three columns. From the top left title the columns RESULT – ACTION –
2. Under the Results column make a list of three Results or outcomes you and your business should be experiencing, but have not been able to achieve. Take your time with this – once you have selected a Result, dwell on it and examine what it would mean for you if this result were achieved – connect yourself to the success of it!
3. Beside each Result, in the Actions column identify the actions or business activities that you should be doing (or others in your business) to achieve the Result you have identified.
4. For every action that you have described identify a fear or
5. Next compare the Result to the Actions you have identified. Ask yourself if the result is important enough to you that you will ensure the actions are taken. If the answer is yes – then set aside one hour to explore the
6. Set mini success goals for the Actions you need to accomplish. If one of your fears continues to be a
Sit down today and tackle your fears head on by creating your listing of Results, Actions and