Читать книгу Clever Girl Finance: The Side Hustle Guide - Bola Sokunbi - Страница 10

So, before we dive into all things side hustles and business, let’s start at the very beginning. Let’s start with you and what could potentially be holding you back: your fear. Yup, that tiny little four-letter word is a pretty big deal because it can negatively impact your ability to pursue your goals in a major way. And more specifically to our topic at hand, fear can impact your ability to start and grow a successful side hustle.

When it comes to starting or growing a side hustle, fear is real and worry is its best friend. Did you nod your head? It’s probably because you’ve felt one or more of several different fears that come with this journey. I have personally felt all kinds of fears and had all kinds of worries on my business journey.

For instance, there’s the fear of the unknown and not knowing enough: “I have no idea how any of this works or how I will pull it off.”

There’s the fear of failure: “What if I start this thing and it doesn’t work out?”

There’s the fear of risk: “This is going to take too much time, money, and resources.”

There’s the fear that you are incapable (aka imposter syndrome): “Who am I to think I can do this?”

There’s also the fear of change: “Just thinking about starting a side hustle and the road ahead makes me nervous!”

And these are just to name a few. Add in worrying about where you are going to find the time and worrying about what other people will think, and you have the perfect formula to do…nothing. Absolutely nothing. And this is where so many incredible business ideas die and get buried.

Fear is a major reason why so many people don’t pursue their dreams or they give up too quickly. Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary¹ as “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger,” fear can actually prevent you from pursuing incredible opportunities, because if you don’t have a handle on it, it can cloud your judgment.

Keep in mind, though, the goal is not to do away with fear completely. There are many instances where we need it to warn us and keep us alert to problems or dangers. Instead, we need to learn how to address our fear, minimize its hold over us, and use it to our benefit.

Instead of letting fear dictate the actions we take (or don’t take), we need to adjust our approach to dealing with it. When it came to building my own business, I’ve felt every single one of the fears I just mentioned. But this time, I decided I had spent too much of my life allowing my fears to keep me stuck or make me give up. I was done with looking back in regret at what I wish I could have done but didn’t. I decided to approach fear differently and instead leverage it to help me succeed.

So how do you leverage fear to your benefit? Here’s what has worked for me in the past and continues to work for me to this day.

Start by accepting that fear does not go away on its own, so you have to confront it head-on. Instead of letting it keep you uncertain and stuck, look at your fears as an opportunity to learn and grow. Whenever I feel fear, I challenge myself to identify what exactly I’m afraid of. I then ask myself what worst-case scenario or outcome could arise from the source of my fear. Once I’m clear on this, I determine the best-case scenario and outcome, because thinking about it this way is super-motivating. Then, I lay out specific actions that I can take to help me counter my fear.

It could be working to improve a certain skill to help me overcome a business challenge I’m facing. It could be asking for help or leaning on my support system of business mentors and fellow entrepreneurs (we’ll get into how you can establish a support system for yourself later on). It could be dusting off my “why” and reminding myself why I want to succeed. It could be imagining what my success could look like after I achieve a certain goal. Or it could be as simple as stepping away to take a mental break and coming back to things later on with a clear head and rested body.

These are all things that you can do as well to power through your fears. Instead of letting your fears set you back, you can leverage them to propel you forward by being objective about the root cause and creating a plan to take action, no matter how small your first step may be.

Fear is an indicator that you are outside of your comfort zone—but outside your comfort zone is where the magic happens. This is where you turn your “one-day” dreams and goals into a successful reality. As you make progress with your side hustle or business, you’ll face fears about different things and in different ways, but the key is to remain objective and take action to counter your fears.

You’ll come away each time feeling more confident in yourself and clearer about what you need to do to succeed in business.