Your mind is a really weird place. And quite often when you’re doing something amazing (like you are) self-doubt can start to take over.
Why? Well, if you’re anything like us, you grew up with the should be’s. That you should have a 9-5 job, that you SHOULD be married by this age and you SHOULD have kids by that age and NO don’t do anything extraordinary because that’s SCARY and what if something BAD happens? Yeaaaah… what if something BAD happens?!
Ok… woha mind! Hold up! Yes, seriously… the mind can get cray cray. But know this…
YOU are amazing!
Whether you’re following your passion, your dream, your bliss right NOW… or, you’ve just started searching for your bliss. Deep down, just remember that you’re going to make this happen, it’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when.
In mid 2014 we were in very different places. Full time government desk jobs and part time passion. It was a really hard time, to be in one place and know that we were meant to be in another.
[Tweet “We knew if we wanted to make our passion full time, we had to take a giant leap of faith.”]
This involved many AHA! Moments and using fear to our advantage.
We changed our negative thought patterns from we can’t do that to… watch us do this!
So here we go… you ready? Fear… look out… we’re a-coming for ya!
First things first. This may be the best acronym in the whole entire world. It definitely changed our lives…
FEAR = FALSE. EVIDENCE. APPEARING. REAL.
Boom! Woh! Aha! Moment right there.
Why are we afraid of quitting our ‘should have’ jobs for something we love? Why do we make excuses to not follow our dreams? Why do we say no to that opportunity? Because of FEAR! But as we said… fear just equals False. Evidence. Appearing. Real.
Everything you’re telling yourself about failure or mishap or embarrassing moments are based on events that actually haven’t even happened yet.
It’s fake. It’s all in your head.
We told you… our minds are crazy!
How do you know you’re going to fail? How do you know you’re not going to be able to pay the mortgage or bills? Well, you don’t but you know for sure that this self doubt isn’t helping anyone… especially you.
Oprah told us this and you should say it out loud with us…
“The only thing keeping me from getting what I want is the story I keep telling myself about why it can’t happen.”
So next time Fear creeps in… come back with that.
Not feeling that acronym? That’s ok! We still love you. Let’s look at fear in a different light. A light we want to go towards. Wait, hold up… why would we want to go towards our fears?
Let’s just clarify something quickly… if your fear is a lion, tiger or bear (oh my) staring at you do NOT we repeat DO NOT go towards it.
But if your fear is something like speaking at an event about your totally amazing business/life, or going on a first date, or networking … then fear is your road sign… it’s pointing you in the right direction… it’s going to get you closer to your bliss… your passion! Yeah! See! Fear is good!
So what are your fears? Because if you don’t know them… you don’t know what road to take! We identify our fears by talking about them and working out a fear game plan and how we’re going to tackle them.
If you don’t want to say your fears out loud yet, journal-ling or simply writing them down might be a good place to start.
Let’s do this! Let’s embrace fear and remember that the only thing keeping us all from getting what we want… is that silly made up story we keep telling ourselves about why it can’t happen.
We can all make it happen, 1 small step is all it takes.
We want to know how you face your fears… do you have certain techniques you use? Let’s all help each other and share below in the comments section!
[Tweet “I’m ready to punch fear in the face! FEAR = False. Evidence. Appearing. Real”]
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla
Images via Gratisography.