Personal Development

Overcome your fear and be the Rockstar inside

This post marks the final post in The YP Rockstar series. To be entered in the comment contest, be sure to make your comments in the next two days! The contest only runs through the end of January. Thanks for reading, and there’s a lot more to come after this series!

Fear holds us back.

Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of looking silly. Too often we let fear stand in our way of being great.

I heard a great quote today: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?” Do you see the truth in that?

This quote is from Marianne Williamson’s “Return to Love” and made famous through Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Inaugural speech. The speech goes on with, “There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.”

We are all meant to shine. That includes you.

Understand the source of your fear.

You know that voice in your head? The one that says you’re not good enough, you’ll never amount to anything, you’re a fake and a fraud and idiot. Well, that’s not you. It’s your gremlin. And, realizing that totally change your life.

One day my life coach, Jenny Ferry, was checking in on my progress in a few areas of my life. I started going on and on about how I was having second thoughts and I wasn’t sure if I could through with it and what if people hated it and what if I was laughed and what if and what if and what if. Jenny listened to me patiently like she always does. And, then, when I was done with my rand, she explained the concept of the gremlin. I, perhaps like you are right now, thought, “Gremlin? What the heck is she talking about?”

But, I’m open minded so I listened. Because Jenny knows me so well, she knew I’d need to read a book about this. A week later I had a copy of “Taming Your Gremlin” and I began to understand that I am not the annoying voice. That’s not me. I was letting fear hold me back from pursuing my dreams.

Whether you buy into the gremlin thing or not, here are the questions you need ask yourself when faced with a fear that is holding you back:

• Where is this fear coming from?
• Why do I have this fear?
• What’s the worst thing that will happen if my fear is realized?
• How bad would that be?
• If that terrible thing happened, how could I fix it?
• Does the benefit of moving forward outweigh the worst fear?

When you ask yourself these questions, you will start to understand your fear and just how irrational and out of control it can get. You’ll start to see that often times there’s no basis for this fear.  After all, what is the worst thing that will happen?

Take action.

Have you ever been in a situation where you were perpetually putting something off? Maybe you bought all the fitness clothes, researched gyms, and bought new equipment, but never actually exercised. Or, instead of actually writing that novel, all you did was the pre-work and character development. Or, perhaps, you are constantly updating your resume, but you never actually get around to sending it.

The other day I mentioned on Twitter that I had purchased a fitness DVD that was still in the wrapper after about a week. Well, with the pushing of about three coaches and friends who jumped all over it, I got up and did the video. I just had to do it. It was as simple as that.

In cases larger than just getting off the couch to exercise, you may need to break down the task into baby steps. If you’re goal is to get a new job, you probably need to start by reviewing your contact list, updating your resume, searching job postings, getting the word out, and on and on. When you break projects down, remember to not get hung up on any one step, keep pushing forward.

Just about every time I write a post for this blog, I get a rush of fear. I think about all the people who may hate what I write, how I’m exposing myself to the world, how I might look stupid. Occasionally, I get really freaked out, especially when the post focuses on me. (You may notice that if you’re ever on Twitter right before or after I publish certain posts.) But, I do it because it’s important to share your story and I love writing this blog. So, I just hit publish and go with it.

Whatever is holding you back from being the Rockstar that you are, take action. Throughout The YP Rockstar I’ve provided tools, resources, and advice to help steer in the right direction. But, nothing I write here can take action for you. You have to do it.

And, I know you can.

Overcome your fear and be a rockstar.

© 2009 Girl Meets Business.