Don’t fear the fear but embrace the feeling.

Facing your fears, that’s one of the most heard pieces of advice entrepreneurs share with one and another. The fear of failure is a very common feeling that people have. Of course, you want to succeed in your endeavours but from failures come lessons. However, one the reasons many people don’t seem to make it as an entrepreneur is for internal reasons. It’s facing the unexpected emotional roller coaster ride most entrepreneurs experience that is the greatest factor to why most quit.

It’s hard to prepare yourself for something that you don’t have complete control over. Being a starting entrepreneur is like a rollercoaster ride, which many know beforehand but cannot be prepared for fully. Many starting entrepreneurs who experience the rollercoaster as too much to handle, think that it’s their own personal fault and that they’re not cut out for the job. These mental roadblocks are important to overcome to get to the other side of success.

The biggest mental roadblock is fear. It is the main thing that can crush you in entrepreneurship, and stop you from realising your dreams. So how do you overcome this fear?

1. reality versus fantasy.

Get real and stop idealising or fantasising too much. Don’t be afraid of rejection, screw-ups and other mistakes; you will not “literally die” when things go pear-shaped. Stop making up scenarios in your head based on assumptions.

2. Don’t fear the fear.

The famous quote from former US President Roosevelt “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”  is so very true. Once you realise that you are not actually afraid of the situation but rather feeding into the fear you experience, you’ll be able to tackle it better.

3. show courage.

Show courage and bravery every now and then, channel your inner Braveheart and think to yourself: “what would William Wallace do”?

4. Just do it.

You have one job, focus on it. Don’t let the fear of the unwanted outcome control how you manage the job or task at hand.

5. Submerge yourself in fear.

Face your fears, better yet submerge in your fears. Go head to head with the things you fear for a certain amount of time. After this, you’ll probably realise that the fear you felt was really just a mental thing that can be overcome.

6. Making fear and failure fun.

A mistake so many entrepreneurs make is thinking they can have success without failure, or happiness without sadness. As sure as we have gravity, we have the pendulum swing of success and failure.

Entrepreneurs need to embrace failure. And make sure that they “out-fail” their competition.