Got Fear? Six Ways to Crush Your Fears and Boost Your Confidence

No matter how much success you've seen or how great your business is doing, it can happen to you. 

I'm talking about fear.

Fear that you may not meet your goals. Fear that your next promo will fail. Fear that your business may fail.

And fear isn't necessarily bad. We all get scared or have doubts. But it's when we let our fears take over, that's when our confidence starts to waver. So instead of giving in to the fear, let's look at how you can reframe those fears, overcome them and remain confident in your business.

Step 1: Identify the fear. 

The first step - identify your fear. I mean REALLY identify it. Not in an "I'm afraid to do live video" kind of way. Go deeper than that. What about doing live video scares you? Are you afraid to say something wrong? If so, that probably means you're not really afraid of saying something wrong, but maybe you're afraid people will judge you or not like you. (#truth)

Focus on identifying root of your fears. If you get stuck, I encourage you to journal about it. Start with something like, "I'm afraid to do live video because..." and just let your thoughts flow. What comes up may surprise you.

Step 2: Determine how the fear affects you now.

Unless you understand how this fear is negatively affecting your life, you're not going to change it. Take a look at what your fear is doing to your life. What is it keeping you from doing?

Don't answer this at a base level, though. Let's go back to the example of being afraid to do live video. Maybe not doing live videos or webinars is keeping you from reaching a bigger audience. Or maybe it's keeping your engagement low. Maybe you're not getting as many sales as you could if you did do videos.

Also, think of what your life would look like if you continued to let this fear hold you back. Will you continue on the same path?

 

Step 3: Embrace your fear.

Like I said, fears themselves aren't a bad thing. It's a human thing. It's when we let them hold us back from doing something we actually want to do, or when they kill our self-confidence that's fears aren't your BFF.

So the next step is to embrace your fears. Admit you have them, but also think of what could come from embracing them and overcoming them. Imagine if you faced the fear. What would your life, or your business, look like then? Would your business expand? Would you sales increase? Would you be happier?

Step 4: Face your fear.

You can jump right in and face your fear, or you can imagine it.

Let's start by imagining. Say you were to actually broadcast live. What would happen? Is it  as scary as you think? Maybe people who have been following you start interacting with you, making you feel like you're talking to a friend. Or maybe no one sees it live and they only catch the replay. 

Our fears tend to make us think "worst case scenario!" when in reality, it's never as bad as we think it is. Plus, when we face our fears, we deflate them and take away their power.

Step 5: Boost your confidence.

If you still feel like your fear is messing with your mind, give yourself a confidence boost. Make a list of all the things you’ve accomplished in your life and in your business. It could be graduating from college (or even high school). It could be landing your first paying gig or client. Basically you’re making an “I AM a badass” list. One that will remind you of the things you’ve overcome, the things you’ve face and what you’ve accomplished.

Step 6: Visualize how you want to feel.

You have total control over your fear. You can either let it control you, or you can control it.

Visualizing yourself facing your fear can really help you get over it. Imagine yourself doing it, and imagine the outcome being amazing.

No matter who you are, fear can creep up when things don’t go as planned, or when things take a nasty turn. Either way, fears hold us back. They crush our confidence in ourselves and in our businesses. Facing them head on will allow you to overcome any fears that pop up, and move forward with total, badass confidence.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

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About The Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

5 Things To Do BEFORE You Make a Vision Board

I've kinda become a pro at creating a vision board that works. Seriously, no matter how much my life sucks and how big and unrealistic my vision is, every vision board I've created has pushed me to make the impossible possible in my life. (I am totally a goal-gladiator.)

It's hard to believe that a tiny board with some magazine clippings on it has so much power, but the truth is that it works because of HOW I created it.

I didn't just slap some pictures of Oprah on a poster board and call it a day.... I spent weeks reflecting internally about what I wanted and then combed through a giant stack of magazines, tossing out anything that didn't SPEAK VOLUMES to my soul. 

The entire process takes weeks... and each time, it's totally worth it. 

Here are the five things you should do BEFORE you even begin creating your vision board:

 

Reflect on what you've already accomplished this year.

A lot of things happen over the course of 1 year. If you consider social media alone, millions of things happen over the course of 1 day. (In any 30-minute span, you could see public outrage over some company's insensitive+non-inclusive ad followed by excitement over the latest zoo animal to have a baby which quickly gets upstaged by a Kardashian being, well, a Kardashian.)

Take a moment to reflect on what has happened in your life in the past year.

What did you accomplish?

What did you try and fail at?

What did you do that made you proud this year? 

Taking account of your successes will help you understand what you need to build on.

Think about the direction you want to take your life next.

One thing many people forget is that you are definitely in control of your life. If you don't enjoy something in your life, you can change it. 

One affirmation I take with me every day (and write at least three times a week in my journal) is: 

I am the architect of your life. I build it's foundation and choose it's contents.

How many times have you stayed in a job, a relationship, friendship, living situation simply because... There's no real reason you're there, but after a while you start to convince yourself 

"I guess this is just the way life is"

The beauty of a vision board is that it's an annual reminder that you can change direction and that you GET TO CHOOSE your next destination.

 

What Do You Want To Change?

No matter who you are, where you are or how successful you are, everyone knows at least ONE THING they want to change about themselves.

Maybe you want to...

• Lose weight.

• Finally get your side hustle off the ground.

• Spend more time with family and friends.

• Strengthen your marriage.

The things you are unhappy with are the key to determining where you want to go next.

Once you understand exactly what you want to change, you can do the real work figuring out HOW you will change it.  

What Would You Do Differently... If There Was Nothing Holding You Back?

I know what you're thinking... what do you want to change and what would you do differently are pretty much the same thing! (I swear they are not! 😃)

Often, we find ourselves in an unusual position where we have something that we want to change, but there's nothing we can really do about it. 

Most people have at least one thing that ties them to something they don't particularly want in their life.

• Your spouse's job may keep you in a certain area.

• Your children's daycare costs may keep you from saving as much as you want.

• Aging parents consume your free time so you can't start that business you've been thinking about.

What would you do if none of those barriers were holding you back from living the life you want today?

 

Be clear on your next BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal).

Having a goal in mind BEFORE you start clipping cute quotes and pictures out of inspirational magazines is crucial to creating a vision board that serves your purpose. 

Your goal could be...

• Building on your past success

• Changing something that's making you unhappy

• Eliminating (or getting around) barriers holding you back from living your best life

ONLY when you have a clearly defined goal can you be strategic about finding the visuals to put on your vision board to serve that goal. 

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.
   

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!

3 Reason To Set Goals When You're Happy and Successful

This new year felt a bit different.

Normally when the new year rolls around, I engage in constant reflection on the year that just passed and think deeply about new things I can do to change my life for the year coming. I would set long and short-term goals, declare my upcoming success in my journal and create a vision board to guarantee my dream comes to life.

In previous years, I’ve set money goals to get out of debt, get a better job and increase my net worth. I’ve even set goals to finally find my dream relationship so my grandmother would stop bugging me about when I’d find a decent guy and settle down.

Now that I’ve hit that point where I have the career and man of my dreams, I guess you can say I got complacent.

What can I say? I was genuinely happy.

Towards the middle of the year I felt like something was off.  

For some reason, I had no reason to wake up in the morning. I started to get bored with my situation. I started to wonder why I couldn’t find that happy space and inner peace that I had at the beginning of the year.

See, it's very easy to get comfortable when life is going well. But, life is consistently changing and we’ve always evolving. If you’re not setting goals when you’re happy, you can’t have any control over life’s changes - you’re simply drifting with whatever life throws your way.

Why Should I Set Goals When I Love My Life?

Goals Add value to your life.

Having a goal gives you something to work towards. Creating value in this world connects you to your values and purpose in life and positions you to act on those intentions.

Without goals, you’re simple enjoying the fruits of your past labor, but you’re not sowing new seeds so that the future you can enjoy abundance tomorrow.

Goals help you avoid complacency.

Complacency is being overly satisfied with one’s achievements.

I want to start with saying that it’s totally fine to enjoy what you’ve accomplished and where your life is right now. Be happy in this moment. Do not allow goal setting for tomorrow to take away your ability to enjoy the things you’ve worked for today.

However, the downside of complacency is being so satisfied with what you’ve done, that you settle in stagnation. You stop setting goals because you’ve reached the highest point of success you could imagine.

Here’s the deal: There’s always more out there for you, if you want it. (If you don’t then totally disregard. :)

You can use your state of happiness and success to build into your next step.

Goals allow you to Choose Your next adventure.

When you don’t have goals of your own, the goals of others will take over your life. If you don’t have anything for yourself that will fill your time, then you’ll open yourself up to filling your time with other people’s agenda.

Over time, you’ll notice that you’re less excited about your life because it’s turned into something that doesn’t align with you.

Setting goals put you in a position of power over your time and energy. You know what you want to do next with your life because you’ve chosen it. You know what to say “NO” to because you have your own set of goals to work towards.

How To Set A New Goal When You LOVE Your Life

Identify the things you love about your life right now.

The happy moments of your life are genuine and it’s important to grab hold of them and notice what about that moment brings you joy.

Do you love that you’re spending time with friends? Do you love that you have more responsibilities at work? Do you love that you’re expressing yourself in a genuine and authentic way more often?

Understanding what aspect of your life is making you happy helps you know what to keep in your life as your life changes.

Let’s be real. The only constant part of life is change. You change as a person, your environment changes, your financial position may change, but when you understand what brings you joy, you can make an effort to focus on those aspects of your life as change occurs.

tackle your secondary goals.

When you’re happy with your life, it’s a great time to start taking care of the small things you’ve left hanging. You could make more time to spend with your grandchildren or do all that random household paperwork you’ve been avoiding.

Hitting a moment of happiness in your life is a blessing because you no longer have to worry about the big things that keep you up at night so you can make time for the little things that make a big difference.

Ask Yourself: How Can I Go Bigger?

The best point in time to take a risk is when you’re coming from a position of strength. Getting to a happy space with your life if DIFFICULT.

Once you’ve reached it, take that opportunity of peak confidence to take a leap of faith into unknown territory.

For example, after you’ve worked hard to pay off your debt, save money and reached a point where you feel financially secure. You'll also be in a better position to try your hand at a side project or investment that could further increase your financial position. You’ve built great money habits to help you reach this point, those habits can take you even further.

It might seem counterintuitive to continue setting goals once you’ve found your “sweet spot” in life, but everything becomes stale at some point, including the life you love. Recognize that change is a normal part of life and take time to re-evaluate what you want. That way, you can drive the change that happens in your life instead of drifting into it.

Want To Start Planning Your Vision Board Party? 

1. Download the FREE vision board party planning checklist.

2. Craft your inspiring vision board workshop talk with our FREE High Impact Storytelling Journal Prompts. 

3. Plan, promote & host your first (or next) professional & profitable vision board workshop with our signature course, Sold Out Vision Board Parties.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!