Fear is one of the strongest emotions every individual is experiencing because of many things we’re fearful of. We sometimes fear to lose, fail, and make mistakes to further doubting our own talent and abilities. We hide it within ourselves because we also fear people might judge us out of it. This true even to career professionals and start-up entrepreneurs in relation to reaching either their life-goals or business goals.
We have to fight over fear to achieve our objectives. We also know that all of our fears are just in our heads. But how can we change our mindset to gain confidence as entrepreneurs and business owners despite our fears? One of the great men in our history, Nelson Mandela, once said,
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela
According to Psychology Today, confidence is a belief in oneself, the conviction that one has the ability to meet life’s challenges and to succeed – and the willingness to act accordingly. Being confident needs a realistic sense of one’s capabilities and feeling secure of that knowledge. To be confident in ourselves, here are some ways to gain confidence and conquer fear.
- Know and accept who you are.
- Think positive.
- Take care of yourself.
- Don’t care what others think.
- Face your fear.
- Know and accept who you are. Get to know first your enemy, and your enemy is yourself. Know what are your strengths and weaknesses, your success and failures, your pains and gains, and others in between. Find also your personality type and make a self-reflection on the results. These are the free personality test you can do online:
Write down the things that you’re good at and things, you need to improve. Accept that you have some weaknesses, learn from it and manage it. Discuss it with family and friends, so that they will able to add some to the list.
Impostor syndrome is an unforgiving mental bug that tells you that your achievements don’t really matter and you’re going to fail in the end. Reverse the thought and take account of your everyday winnings. We, humans, tend to remember more of our mistakes and forget how we succeed. Always jot down and reflect on what things you’ve done well. It’s easier to gain confidence in yourself when you remember them.
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint’, then by all means paint, and the voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh
- Think positive. Replace the negative thought with positive ones. Think of five (5) positive thoughts to counter every one negative thought. Moreover, acknowledge both good and bad emotions. Develop a self-dialogue or self-talk, and put your positive thoughts about yourself more often. Believe that you can do something with the right help, support, preparedness, and knowledge.
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” – Dr. Benjamin Spock
- Take care of yourself. It’s tough to feel good about yourself if you’re not taking extra care about yourself particularly of your health. Skipping meals, eating unhealthy food, and refraining from exercise will drain your well-being. Studies show physical activities and regular exercise boosts confidence. Exercising helps reduce memory loss, improves concentration, manages stress, and prevents depression. Eat healthily, stay active, get enough sleep, and devote a “Me Time” makes you gain confidence.
“When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.” – Joe Namath
- Don’t mind what others think. Whether you do good or something else, there are still people who will tell that you cannot do something big or accomplish anything. Whether it is rejection or negative criticisms from your boss, friends, or family, people will try to tell you either your goal is too big, you’re not ready, you can’t do it, that it was never has done before, or something like these but you cannot completely listen to them. While they are against your plans or goals one or another, most people are wrong about almost anything. If you think you can do it, then do it. Don’t listen to them, just believe in yourself and go on.
“Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Christopher Robin
- Face your fear. Failures are just part of our life-learning and it’s a process. If fearing to fail or commit mistakes stop you attaining your dreams, you’re will be overwhelmed and eventually feel that you can’t do anything. Pause for a while, look inside yourself, and gather all your courage to keep going. Every successful person whether a business person, a professional, or just starting to be someone, is also felt fear once, twice, or some in their life.
Everybody has fear and experience being fearful, but they keep taking the risk, face their fear, and they accept that fear. Because they believe that their trying to achieve is more important than their fear that they will fail. Think about how much you want to achieve your goal, then put your fear aside, and go ahead, act confidently one step at the time.
“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
We are what we believe in. If you cultivate your confidence and manage your fear now, then it will be until the end. Talk to your friend and family who bring positive vibes to your goals, be confident, and the rest will follow. Learn to encourage others, believe in other’s unique skills, share your talent, give back to the community, and it will give back to you two or three-folds. Remember that you are not alone in this journey.
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