Fear and success don’t usually go together. When we look at who we believe to be successful, they look so confident and sometimes less like ourselves. When we begin this comparison, we tend to go inward and feel self-doubt. This is often when the fear sets in. We do this in so many areas of our lives on an everyday basis.

Sometimes it’s the little things that frighten us like spiders or small spaces but these aren’t worth mentioning when we’re wanting to design an abundant and successful life yet, it’s so difficult for us to change these irrational fears. 

It’s one thing to be afraid of spiders but what about standing on stage and giving a speech or just creating a video to sell our latest offering? We can talk about how badly we want success but generally it’s the fear of following through that blocks us. Talking about it is very different from actually acting on it. 

Think about your own life and ask how often this happens for you. You’re really hopeful for becoming more successful as an entrepreneur but you’re too afraid to do all of the tasks that will catapult you like starting a podcast or writing a book.

There’s a quote from Les Brown that I really love, “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears”. 

When you let this sink in, it hits home in too many areas of our lives. Let’s face it, fear simply takes up too much of our time and energy. It takes up so much of our life that we begin to be upset about how we’re wasting time. When we allow fear to block our success, we’re just slowly dying because fear is literally stopping us from doing the difficult things in life and in our businesses. One thing is for sure, we’ll never receive all the abundance, happiness or success until we unblock ourselves from staying stuck in fear. 

Remembering when I was homeless and didn’t know where I would get my next meal, I didn’t even realize that I had taken such a powerful step of change. I had been so fearful of leaving the abuse that I stayed for far too long until one day, the fear was replaced by being fed up with my life. “I’d rather be homeless than be abused”, I said to myself. 

Then many years later, I held on to my brick and mortar skin spa business for too long because I was too afraid to do anything about it. I wanted so desperately to have a freedom style business where I could work from home helping people have more successful lives and businesses. Once I looked fear in the eyes, I was able to list my business for sale and start the coaching and consulting business that has been my passion for nearly seven years. 

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you’ve ever struggled with overcoming fear in your own life so much that you felt like it had a crippling hold on you, I want to share with you five super simple hacks to help you conquer the fear and move forward towards your goals.

1. Use breathwork

Generally when we’re experiencing fear, you’ll notice anxiety.  You’ll feel it throughout your whole body in your nervous system. It can cause you to spiral out of control so before this happens and you have a freak out moment, take a moment to use breathwork to calm your nerves. It’s simple to do, take a deep breath in and slowly breathe out. If you think you’re up against something particularly nerve wracking on a given day that terrifies you, just try breathwork or even a short meditation. This usually clears a path of calm confidence for me so I can take steps towards the challenging tasks.

2. Tame the inner voice

We tend to do what we can to give all sorts of reasons to back away from what we’re afraid of. Instead work more consciously to notice you’re listing all of the reasons to back away, then begin listing why it could work and actually be a positive experience. The goal here is to talk yourself into it. I always tell my clients to remember they can do anything. You can see so many successful people doing what you want to do and just notice that they’re not better or smarter than you. Repeatedly declare to yourself that you’re bold and courageous and that you’ve got this!

3. The gift of a job well done

This is unfortunately an overlooked hack. It’s so difficult for us to reward ourselves or to celebrate our wins. Yet, it’s a success strategy most wealthy people practice with each goal attained. Like with the tip above, reframe that inner voice and in this case, tell yourself that you’ll get a very special reward once you’ve achieved this goal. Even the simplest reward like a special meal out at your favorite restaurant is in order. When there is a special reward waiting for us, it’s so much easier to keep moving forward with commitment.

4. Go visit the future YOU

Sometimes you need a little help. A little hand-holding is needed when we just can’t seem to muster up the courage. This is my favorite hack and it’s borrowing the strength and courage from the future version of yourself. You see, there IS a version of you that is doing all of the things you want and having all of the money, joy and success. The trick here is to tap into that future version of yourself by imagining yourself in the state of mind of already being successful. Imagine how you’d feel and act if you’d already achieved these goals. This is what winning athletes do as well because this hack really works!

5. Embrace the willingness to get support

As with anything, sometimes you can’t succeed without a little help. There’s no doubt that you can DIY just about anything but when you’re really struggling, you can begin searching for a support group to help guide you through it. Maybe you’re having trouble getting on camera to do a Livestream or create a video, give yourself grace and go get a mentor. You must remember, that even the champion athletes and wealthy of the wealthiest have coaches. A LOT of this fear is just hardwired into your subconscious mind, so a little help from a support group where you can work it out may be what will get you closer to the next step. 

Fear is normal, it’s a part of everyone’s life. It can be crippling when it grips on to us but when it seems like it just won’t let go of us, it’s just too easy to stay complacent but that’s not where abundance and success come from. We can take steps to face the fear and even conquer it so that we can move in the direction of experiencing everything we want out of life. Choose to tell fear to hit the road so you can begin to break free and feel more fulfilled and enjoy more success.