“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” - Walt Disney
Hi friend, welcome back. My name is Rebecca for those who are new here and on this channel we focus on building wealth and living our dreams without being tied down to a traditional job.
Now there are a lot of aspects to that, but today we’re just focusing on motivation.
We all know that as small business owners and hustlers, motivation is essential. Hustling and small business are not easy, but you can do it.
Let’s read that opening quote one more time.
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” - Walt Disney
So let’s talk about courage.
The definition of courage is: “the ability to do something that frightens one." Or, “strength in the face of pain or grief.” (Thanks to Google dictionary for that definition!)
And I’m sorry to mix quotes here, but if I’m talking about courage I have to say that “courage is not the absence of fear, but the assessment that something else is more important” (Franklin D. Roosevelt).
The point is, you can have fear and still be courageous. So courage, I think, is simply the willingness to face your fears.
I know for me, running this small business takes courage each and every day, because I’ve always had a perfectionism issue.
If I dig deep, I know that means I’m really afraid for people to see any imperfection in me or my work because I am afraid that I will be ridiculed or dismissed if people see those.
Of course, I know these fears are not healthy and probably not true, and I need to just face them. So that’s what I’m trying to do.
I know that if I write content and put it out there, it will never be perfect. And that exposes myself to be seen and judged by the world as the imperfect person that I am.
That is scary for me.
And yet, I’m choosing to face that fear. I’m not saying I’m the best at this or anything, I’m just giving an example from my own life and how I’m trying to walk this out.
One of my mentors back in college taught me that most fears are insubstantial, and to overcome them, all you have to do is just face them.
And that’s the definition of courage which we just read.
The truth is that the majority of our fears will never come true! So we are really doing ourselves a disservice when we refuse to just face them head-on. And if you don’t believe me, let me show you some stats.
Pine Grove Behavioral Health says a new study showed that 91% of things we fear will never actually come true.
That means that only 3% of our fears are worth fearing at all. And 97% of what you worry about is basically just your mind telling you lies.
Most of your fears will never happen, or won’t be as bad as you expect, if they do.
One last thing I will leave you with is a story about roller coasters and an easy and practical way to start overcoming your fears.
When I was a teenager, I went to 6 Flags in California a lot of times, but I will never forget the first time.
I was terrified of roller coasters!! But I promised my sister that I would try one of the big roller coasters with her once. I was so scared that I was physically shaking.
You better bet I was contemplating backing out during the whole time that we waited in line for the coaster.
The wait for one coaster was over an hour long, and the whole time my nerves kept getting worse and worse. I was shaking more and more, and even my teeth started chattering. It sounds funny to say now, but really I was so scared!!
And then finally we were on the coaster and here it goes, clickity-clack, slowly and tauntingly up and up and up and up until the peak, and then a long pause at the top.
And then next thing I knew, down we sped on the tallest drop in the whole park, and 30 seconds of loops and twists and whips…and then it was over!
After that it was history. I kept trying more and more roller coasters, harder and scarier ones.
I was still scared of roller coasters, but I was pushing myself to face my fears.
And then I got to the point where I decided “let me just do the scariest one in the park and see what will happen.”
Let me tell you, my nerves got to me again. I almost backed out again. This was THE scariest and hardest roller coaster in the park! But I didn’t back out at the last minute. I ended up doing it, and it wasn’t that bad.
And I haven’t been afraid of a single roller coaster since that one. In fact, I really enjoy them now!
The point is, I can attest from this roller coaster experience, and many other experiences as well, that when you face your fears, they usually go away.
I’m probably not the only one who struggles with some fear and imposter syndrome surrounding small business and hustling. And we need to simply face those fears.
The other thing that I want you to take away from this story is that choosing to do something that physically scares you, like a roller coaster, can actually be symbolic and help you to face other, more difficult, internal fears.
I mean things like fears in your business or maybe emotional fears.
Those unseen fears are actually deeper and harder to face for many of us.
So doing something symbolic to face your other fears can also end up helping you gain momentum and face the harder things too.
If you’re scared of snakes, for example, try holding a snake in a safe and controlled environment.
That doesn’t mean you should go and jump into a pit of venomous snakes, but maybe holding a single snake in a controlled environment like a pet store is something that you’re irrationally scared of and would be a good step.
Try facing something today or this week and see where it takes you. You’re stronger than you think. You’re more courageous than you realize.
And remember, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
So you guys, that’s all I have for today, but I truly hope this was helpful to you.
I’m so honored that you took your time to be here, and until next time, just remember that you are loved, you are not alone, and you’ve got this.