“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”
– George Addair
What fear is holding you back from growing your business?
A few years ago, when I was still making soap in my kitchen, I knew that I could not continue to grow at that pace. I was working ALL the time, and my house was FULL of boxes of oils, fragrance bottles, soap molds & curing soaps.
I had a path through the dining room lined with huge boxes of oils. It was a maze through supplies. We never had friends come to our house.
My husband is a minimalist who is happy when our home is neat & tidy. Whatever is the opposite of that describes our house at that point.
I knew I needed to get the business out of my house, but I was terrified of taking on rent. I simply did not think I was generating enough revenue to cover rent + utilities + my salary needs + supplies.
I was scared of taking a risk.
I was scared that I would not be able to sell enough to pay the expenses. I lived in that place of fear for a while.
Until one day, I said “I can’t do this anymore. This is a solvable problem, and I am worried about something that is not real”.
I had continued to sell more than I could make, so there was no real evidence that I could not continue to improve in that regard, and earn enough to pay the rent.
So, one day, I found a place and signed a year lease. I was almost sick with anxiety, as a HUGE wallop of fear that I had signed the death warrant of my business weighed on my shoulders.
That feeling started to pass the day I moved in (too much excitement).
It definitely passed when my friend came to help in the mornings, and I saw for the first time, how much more my business could produce if I had help. I needed to see that with my own eyes to let go of any residual fear and see the future clearly.
I now take any fear that comes along, and turn it into a challenge.
I ask myself “is this is solvable problem?”
If it is solvable, I get to work listing ALL the possible solutions. Even before I find the ideal solution, I am empowered to take the fear into my own sphere of control and not let the fear run the show.
Nothing to date has turned out to be “unsolvable”.
As I have gone through subsequent levels of growth, countless new challenges and struggles, more fears have crossed my path.
But I went ALL IN the day I signed that first lease (there have been two more since then). I decided that moving forward was the only direction for me. I decided that the best possible outcome was my focus.
Are YOU letting fear call the shots?
Are are you taking your fear and determining if it is simply a solvable problem?
Are you going to take fear as a message that you have to find a way around an obstacle?
Or are you going to stay where you are, waiting for some magical solution to come along and solve it for you?
