Face Your Fears and Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

I wanted to take a moment to talk about something that a lot of people either pretend they don’t have or don’t want to admit to themselves it is crippling them.

That subject is FEAR.

Do you think that the most successful businessmen on the planet never had to face any fears? Do you think a rock star never had “butterflies” in their stomach before a concert? Of course they did they are human, just like you and me but the one thing they did differently than others is they FACED their fears and conquered them.

I see this on the internet all the time. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It is, however, something you should work on. How? Whatever it is that scares you, try it. I’m not talking about falling off a high bridge or being struck by a bus or having spiders crawl all over you (although that could be pretty scary), I’m talking about if for instance you are scared to talk in public. Try it. Just say something. You know when I first started going to conferences on the phone I was SO afraid I mean SO VERY afraid of making a fool out of myself I would be afraid ot even state my name and where I was calling from.

I was seriously paralyzed with fear to the point I could feel my hand shaking on the phone. Oh my GOD it amazes me how far I have come since then but I distinctly remember that if I stated my name and where I was from I was scared to death someone would say HI Laura how are you? “Oh NO don’t you dare talk to me”! is what I was thinking so to make sure that didn’t happen I said absolutely nothing. This went on for a couple of years.

I could talk to people that wanted to hear about my business but when there was a conference of a bunch of people on the phone no WAY were you hearing me. Now I go back even farther and remember my days of Amway and going to the public conferences, I flew all over the United States and NEW I was going to have to walk that stage and get up to that microphone and say me name “OH NO WAY” I thought to myself but I did it. I actually was able to speak in public BEFORE I could speak on the phone..how backwards is that??

Well with some soul searching and book reading on self confidence and a hell of a lot of support from family I got over that phone conferencing stuff. However, last year I was thrust into HOSTING webinars. Now imagine the same woman that was paralyzed to even say her stinking name on the phone was now asked to HOST webinars. LOL I said at first “NO WAY” again I told myself but this time no way wasn’t an option for me. This time I had grown. I knew I could do it (I am not saying I wasn’t scared to death) but I KNEW I was passionate about what I was to be talking about and KNEW deep inside I could do it. And so I did, and still do, and now it’s no big thing.

One other thing I have learned about facing my fears is learn to laugh at yourself. Yes it’s really that simple. Learn to laugh at yourself and not take yourself so seriously and you will be very amazed at how these “out of your comfort zone” places will start suddenly becoming a bit easier.

Also, one more thing, don’t think you have to be perfect. Yes very true, don’t think you have to be perfect in order to impress. As a matter of fact if you continue on trying to be perfect all the time 800 others are going to fly right by you and you are going to miss the boat. While you are filly farting (yes I love that term and I said it) around with your perfect blog and your perfect video and its not being shown to the public because it’s not perfect to you you are screwing yourself. Stop procrastinating and get it out there!
By the way procrastination is a sign of fear….yes, a lot of people call it being unorganized nope, it’s procrastination which is a sign of fear.

So I hope this has helped you and if it did please comment and also please share with us your fears, we all know we have all had them and I shared some of mine so let’s hear it!

Hugs.

Laura Reeves