Fear is not a problem. (It might even be a good sign.)
As a coach, one thing I’ve noticed is how hard it can be for people to share their hopes and dreams. It’s frequently harder than sharing fears—seriously. I think about this a lot because it feels important:
If I imagine the self as made up of layers, fear would be the layer above hopes and dreams, protecting them. Hopes are at the core of self: your magical, vulnerable, powerful core. I won’t fault anyone for being terrified by naming them. I know how hard it has been for me to admit the things I most want.
What if we consider that the creative process is an expression of self? And that building a business is one huge creative project that reflects the person building it? It’s saying: this is my perspective, and I am allowed it; and I know it has value. This is my dream, my need, who I am, right now. It matters.
It requires courage for us to own, value, and trust our creative process, even in the smallest moments. Even saying, I can take some time today in recreation flirts with whether we are allowed to need what we need, love what we love, be who we are.
Every time we show up to the create our business, we let a little of that core self show, and it feels like risk. And so, every time we show up to this process, our fears show up too. Because we’re doing something we care about, our fears remind us of all the obstacles and all the uncertainty. After all, that’s our SELF out there, showing on the outside, vulnerable to all kinds of things!
If fear is showing up for you, then you’re doing something brave. Even a nap could be a bravest thing to create today. Because what is courage but a choice to move through fear? It’s not a lack of fear—courage could not exist without fear being there first. What would we need courage for if we weren’t afraid first?
And fear is not the lack of courage. Fear shows up when we are ready to deploy our creative process; it tells us something important is happening.
Feeling fear does not mean you aren’t courageous, you can’t have confidence, or that you’re not meant to do this. It simply means something that matters to you is going on.
In the context of creative process, fear and courage can’t exist without the other. They co-generate. They’re both part of the process.
When it comes to being creative,
courage is not the lack of fear
and fear is not the lack of courage.
Creating a business is Courage in Action. You are taking a piece of your insides and showing it on the outside. It’s beautiful, vulnerable…and if you’re really being true to your process, probably scary.
That’s a lot of philosophy to say that fear isn’t a problem. Now, I don’t want to say that you should never listen to it—we have this evolutionary feature for a reason and sometimes things really are unsafe! But marketing, more often than not, is usually something we perceive as more risky than it actually is. So it’s also possible to see fear as a beautiful and essential part of the process, and it’s one of my favorite places to get into with clients. Fear isn’t there to be mastered, beaten, hidden, or even appeased. It’s there to move through, your whole self intact.
If you choose to, you can enlist fear as a helper, reminding you that something that matters is going on.
Next time you feel fear creep up when you’re showing a little of your insides on the outside, be it asking for something you need or publicizing a project, can you be curious what might happen if you allow it to be with you instead of fighting it?
Can you enlist it instead of telling yourself there’s something wrong with feeling it?
What would change for you if you could learn to move with your fears instead of letting them derail your dreams?