Grappling With Fear & Insecurity? Here’s How To Stay Calm Through Your Business Journey

Having insecurities seems a normal part of the struggle of being an entrepreneur. Aren’t most businesswomen facing it daily? But have you ever noticed how much it is ruining your decisions? And driving you to the brink of failure?

Having insecurities seems a normal part of the struggle of being an entrepreneur. Aren’t most businesswomen facing it daily? But have you ever noticed how much it is ruining your decisions? And driving you to the brink of failure?

When you started a business, you would have experienced it.

Worry about not getting what you need or losing what you have.

You often hear a creepy voice inside your head. “Can I could pitch that client? What if she rejects my offer?” “Will my product hit the market? Or will it turn out a big flop?”

Feeling empowered at one’s own work becomes impossible. Sometimes you freak out. You keep reading a mail dozens of times, before sending it to the client. You are worried if client will find your presentation boring. You keep doubting yourself, can I ever be good enough?

Having insecurities seems a normal part of the struggle of being an entrepreneur. Aren’t most businesswomen facing it daily? But have you ever noticed how much it is ruining your decisions?And driving you to the brink of failure?

Shall I tell you how to make business life easier and more joyful?

The downside of FEAR

Here’s what happens when you go through constant fear:

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

The loud negative thoughts start to belittle you. So, without analyzing you tend to believe them to be true.

Like,

You are muddled in “what if” thoughts.

You are terrified about something awful happening.

You get worried that you’re not doing things right.

You easily get irritated over petty things.

You are caught in a brain fog where you can’t think clearly.

Rejection and humiliation worsen your self-worth.

In his book, Getting Out of Your Buts Sean Stephenson an American therapist, self-help author stated:

“The longer you stay frozen in that place of fear, excuses, or insecurity, the harder it becomes to get up off it. As long as you’re stuck on your BUT, you’ll never go after what you really want in life.”

Fear manifests in noxious emotions. It leads us to take quick and instinctive choices which turn out to be idiotic many times.

To rise above the fears, we need to slow down. We need to grow within ourselves. We need to reframe our mindset.

The power of Mindfulness

Mindfulness helps to manage our attention. We learn to observe our thoughts. We learn to shift our perspective. We can understand the react Vs respond mechanism deeply. It helps us to stay immune against negative emotions.

So, when you find yourself lost in a massive workload or trapped in worries, pause and be aware of what’s going inside your mind.

Pinpoint the exact reason behind your ‘stuckness’. Ask yourself: Am I unclear about what I want? Do I need to get more skilled in what I want to create? What challenges are bothering me?What’s making me restless? Fear of uncertainty? Disappointments? Distractions? Lack of productivity?

How are my thoughts and emotions causing my body to react? Am I having a headache? Dizziness? Have I lost my appetite?

Recognize and accept the feeling without judgment. It helps to create space within you.

Instead of drowning in the sea of delusive thoughts, learn to ask yourself what went wrong, and how you can come up with a solution.

Stop caring about what others say about you

What happens when your husband thinks you can’t run a business? When a client scolds you? When investors reject your deal?

Does any kind of mistake, embarrassment or rejection define who you truly are? Does the other’s reaction hold the absolute truth about your reality?

We judge ourselves by the work we do. We care about our brand. We see work as our act of creation. We are scared of what happens if people don’t perceive our work as we find it.

But the reality is we don’t have control over outcomes. Work hard on improving your service. Speed up your learning curve. Keep doing what you believe is true.

Don’t let criticism stop you from getting what you truly desire for.

Break the cycle of comparing yourself and get frustrated

Self-comparison born out of insecurities is the reason behind getting scared.

“Comparing means evaluating our work against others, and judging what’s good and what’s bad. When we compare, we don’t look to learn, but to judge, to criticize. If we think our work is better, we big ourselves up and boost our self-esteem. If we think their work is better, we feed our own securities. We confirm our negative self-image. We think we lack talent.” (By Henneke Duistermaat – enchantingmarketing.com)

Isn’t this way we are designed to think? We compare ourselves mainly to know how we’re doing our work. Comparison leads us to resentment. And we fall into the trap of bitter emotions.

When you practice acceptance, you learn to stop fighting with annoyance. Instead, you get closer to your insecurities. You start to acknowledge self-doubts.

Many times you don’t realize why you’re feeling miserable. But once you try to observe the root of your fears, you find ways to settle with them. For instance, you might feel afraid to pitch a new business idea. It makes you spend sleepless nights, doubting your idea, whether it’s good enough or not.

But when you learn to notice your doubts, you can realize it’s your fear of failure holding you back from pitching the idea. You just need to embrace the fear, push it and take action, anyway.

Create thriving business ideas. Work on to make them alive. Explore in front of the right audience. Focus on making their life easier. Collect feedback.

And start planning for the next project.

Learn to be YOU

Business fluctuations bounce you up and down. Sometimes you feel on top of the world, at other times you just want to scream. So the journey is exciting, thrilling…yet addictive.

In the race of chasing goals, solving problems and fixing issues, you may not realize how the business has started to steal your time and energy.

In the chaos, it feels challenging to find inner calmness. Right? But when you learn to let go, you create your own little space. Where you can know what matters to you most. Where you can follow your curiosity to learn and grow. Where you can make empowering choices.

Create change that nurtures your soul, ignite your passion and help you to stay true to yourself. Know who you really are and who you are not.

FINALLY…. 

Don’t worry about getting frozen, seized, edgy, dizzy or frenzied. Take a deep breath. Hug your fears. And choose to walk boldly towards your goal.

Be compassionate to yourself first, because you are valuable.

Image via Unsplash

Liked this post?

Join the 100000 women at Women's Web who get our weekly mailer and never miss out on our events, contests & best reads - you can also start sharing your own ideas and experiences with thousands of other women here!

Comments

About the Author

Mehera

Mehera is a content writer. Her passion is to create inspiring & engaging content that energize her readers to take a tiny step towards more productive life. She believes in Creating, Learning and Growing. read more...

2 Posts | 4,634 Views

Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!

All Categories