Putting yourself out there is one of the hardest things to do as a new entrepreneur. When we work with our passion, especially something we create, we subconsciously decide that our business efforts are inextricably linked to our identity. Then, if people don’t receive our efforts well, it is translated as a reject of self. This can be debilitating for entrepreneurs in their early business development. If you don’t get out there and tell people what you’re doing, they’ll never know the value of your offering, and then how can you possibly be successful? What is critically important is having courage to forge ahead- try, fail and try again. But courage is not the absence of fear… it is the acknowledgement that fear is the brain’s natural tendency to keep you safe. In fact, anytime your brain identifies it doesn’t have the knowledge or skills it thinks it needs to navigate its current circumstance, a fear response will be triggered in order to keep you safe. Your job is to first recognize this is happening and second to override your primitive brain with the pre-frontal cortex, which is the part of your brain that reasons. Can Courage be reasoned? Absolutely! First, say “Thank you brain for keeping me safe,” and second, picture the ideal outcome of your specific circumstance as a replacement “anchor thought” anytime your primitive brain starts to hijack you with fear. This new anchor thought will begin to take hold, just long enough for courage to push past the fear so you can move into action. Take small actionable steps every day to practice the art of moving past fear using courage.
