What to do when fear freezes you in your tracks

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

Wayne Gretzky
Canadian hockey player “The Great One”

If there’s one thing I learned early on in my career, and business too, it’s that I would never know the answer to a question if I was too afraid to ask it.

I’m the kind of person who tends not to hear “no” (just ask my husband) and this has served me well over the years. When I set my mind on something, I generally get what I want. But I can tell you that operating my own business has tested my limits and has required me to take some shots that I’d never have imagined in my corporate days. It was never required of me to step that far out of my comfort zone. Being extremely good at my technical area of expertise was enough to be successful in my career.

Over the last year, I’ve moved away from a lucrative consulting base into uncharted territory. I made a monumental decision to turn down contracts that equaled my previous corporate salary. I said no to renewals that would easily cover my living needs each month and then some, because the work did not match the vision I have for my life and my business. I also set the wheels in motion for growth that could take my breath away if I stop too long to think about it. Does this scare me? You bet!

So I am no stranger to fear. When I tell my clients that it’s ok to feel the fear, but not to let it stop them, I practice what I preach, and so do my successful business colleagues. What separates the thriving business owner from the struggling entrepreneur is not the absence of fear. We all feel it. In fact, the bigger the business, the bigger the fear! The difference is being able to continue to take action and stay focused in spite of it.

Fear can paralyze you in many ways, for example:

• Spending lots of time marketing, but no time selling
• Letting potential client leads go cold
• Being afraid to pick up the phone and call potential clients or others who could refer you business
• Not spending money on the things you need to grow your business, like getting help or professional advice
• Filling up notebooks with enough incredible ideas to make your business boom but not taking a single step to implement them
• Watching others pass you by with an idea you had months or even years ago

If you recognize any of these scenarios, you have opportunities right in front of you, at this very moment, that aren’t being acted upon. If you aren’t as successful as you’d like to be in your business, not taking action is costing you – 100 percent! There is nothing more important for your business than taking the actions that move it forward today.

I see this happen all too frequently, and what I’ve come to understand is that for many business owners who have brilliant ideas they aren’t pursuing, the overwhelm and fear they feel has hardened into a frozen ball of paralysis.

If you recognize yourself in this scenario, my goal is that you take action on the things that will get you the biggest return, the fastest. One of the ways you can do this is to get really clear on why you’re letting yourself stay stuck. You see, “stuck” isn’t a state of being that’s thrust upon you. It isn’t something that happens to you. It’s a place you got yourself into, which means with some help you can get yourself out!

Most of the time, when we’re uncomfortable with moving ahead with actions we know are good for us in growing and marketing our businesses, the source of these feelings can usually be split into one of two categories: things we avoid because we’re fearful, or things we avoid because we don’t know how to do them (and so we’re afraid of making a mistake, or appearing incompetent).

The good news is that as soon as you identify the real reason behind your discomfort, you can take steps to fix it.

Imagine the compounding effect of one snowflake being rolled down a hillside. What starts out as tiny, separately insignificant, unique snowflake gets bigger as it collects more of them. As the size of the ball grows, it also picks up speed. If you can imagine each of your challenges and fears as individual snowflakes, now you’ve got yourself a runaway snowball, chasing you down the hill! When you look at this killer snowball, it’s hard to remember that it was all started by a single snowflake!

When you feel overwhelmed, the first thing you need to do is separate the snowflakes. For example, are you really not calling a potential joint venture contact because you feel unprepared? If you feel that way, is there truth to it? Do you need to do some homework, and if so, what? Do you need advice? Do you need to learn how to do something? Is it only one little thing that you can easily solve now that you know what it is? Or are you simply nervous about it?

If you’re nervous about it, is it because you feel you aren’t ready? What would it take for you to feel ready? Is it technique and how-to information that would help you? Or is it simply a fear, that you can conquer once you’re confident that you’re prepared? Or that you can work through, on your own, or with help?

Being able to identify the areas that are causing you stress, or making you feel overwhelmed is really important. It allows you to control rather than feel controlled, and will help you take action on the things that will build your business.