“Believe in your potential, even if you haven’t seen the results” – Gaby Natalie
Ideas were racing around my mind. Dreams and visions of how incredible it would be. The research was done, and everything was in place. The next step was to just start.
But wait, I should research a little more, I told myself, trying to distract myself from the harsh reality that I might fail. What do I have to offer, no one will pay attention to me?
I knew we all have those moments of fear and self-doubt. But, fear can cripple us, and if we let it, stop us in our tracks. Here is the thing, fear happens to everyone, it’s recognizing when it’s a problem. We need to recognize what happens when we are fearful.
1. We Freeze
Fear can have the power of freezing our efforts. We become so afraid of failing, we never begin. It is so easy to convince ourselves we don’t know what we are doing, there is no way we can succeed.
But the truth is, you learn by doing. Your research can only take you so far. Even if you become a world renown academic expert, that is only going to take you so far. There are some things you are only going to learn by doing. You need to just start doing, because what you don’t know you will learn along the way.
Perhaps even more important, you will never regret trying nearly as much as you will regret not trying. The reality is, if you never try, you will never know.
So whatever fear is holding you back from, today do something, just start somewhere.
2. Fear Leads to Procrastination
Procrastination is closely related to freezing. However, in some ways, it is worse because it allows you to convince yourself that you are actually doing something. Yes, you know what you should be doing, but you are just putting it off.
Here is the hard truth, the only way to really overcome procrastination is by just doing. Here are some ways to put off your procrastination so that you can get started doing.
A. Practice Effective Time Management.
Proper time management is a key to putting off procrastination because it allows for effective planning. I wrote a recent article on effective time management. If you have not read it and are struggling in this area, stop and read it now. Click here.
B. Focus on Your Why
This is where you will find your motivation to overcome your fear and procrastination. What is it that you want to accomplish that you are putting off and allowing fear to take over? Why is it important to you? What will you gain by pursuing it? If you are not sure, spend some time writing down your goals, and why you want to pursue them. Then keep that paper some place you will regularly see it. Focus on your why to motivate you to stop procrastinating.
C. Start Simple and Build Momentum.
Just do one thing and build on it. Let’s say your goal is to finally declutter your house. You know that you can have so much more by having less. But you don’t know where to start and you’re afraid of whether you can really do it. Well, the last thing you should do is try and declutter your entire house all at once. You need to start small and build momentum. Start with one easy drawer and build on that.
D. Be realistic.
Break down the tasks that you are procrastinating on into smaller tasks. You are not going to accomplish your goal all at once, you need to start small and break it down. Let’s go back to decluttering, a favorite topic of mine 🙂 The goal is to declutter your closet. It is not realistic to go through your entire closet all at once. Break it down. Start with seasonal clothing. If you are not sure, wear it, see how you feel in it then decide on that one outfit at the end of the day. There, you just did something, pretty easy.
E. Ruthlessly remove distractions.
One of the easiest ways for us to procrastinate is to allow distractions to take our focus off of what we know we should be doing. When you are tempted to distraction, you need to be ruthless in removing them. Put your phone in another room, turn off all email and other notifications. Arrange a play date for the kids so you can have some time to work without distraction.
3. Fear Causes us to Say Yes to, too many things.
We become so afraid of not getting what we want, we will say yes to anything and everything. By doing this you miss bigger and better opportunities. We need to learn to say no to some things so we have the time for better things. Do you have enough faith in yourself to put off now for what could be? You need to set fear aside and trust yourself.
4. Fear Stops us From Acting Rationally
Think of Scooby Doo or the Friday the 13th movies. Whenever danger appears Scooby and Shaggy run right into it because their fear prevents them from thinking rationally. The same thing happens to the characters in the Friday the 13th movies. Fear prevents the characters from thinking rationally and they run straight into the path of Freddy Kroger.
While our fear is not the result of murderous villains chasing us, the result is the same. Our fear prevents us from thinking rationally and we end up in the path of danger. This prevents us from achieving our ultimate goals. This is when we need to stop and take a deep breath.
My favorite acronym for the word Fear is:
F = false
E = evidence
A = appearing
R = real
We need to realize that our fears are themselves, more often than not, irrational. The fear appears real, but the evidence doesn’t support it. You need to let go of the fear in order to begin thinking rationally. Once you do, you realize you CAN do this, you just need to start.
So today, do something to overcome your fear and just start. I would love to know if you have anything you do that has helped you overcome the fear of getting started. Let me know in the comments.
Now go and live simply, live full and make each day your Favorite day!!
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