Battling The Fear Demons

Everyone has fears and this is inevitable. It is part and parcel of life. However, what separates the winners from the masses who fail is the ability to acknowledge one’s fears and push through them. While conquering one’s deepest and darkest fears is not easy, it is definitely worth the effort. As an online marketer, there will be times when the skies seem gloomy and you wonder if it will all work out.

Financial insecurities, temporary setbacks and the usual challenges that life throws at you can be daunting. The majority of beginners will throw in the towel and quit the moment the going gets tough. They falsely believe that they don’t have what it takes to succeed or the journey is just too tough for them. They fear the ‘hard yards’ and the travails that must be endured for one to see success. They quit out of fear.

But you’re different because you know better. When it comes to fear, you really only have 2 choices.

1. Forget Everything And Run

Or

2. Face Everything And Rise

The choice is quite obvious. While the first one will be easy, it will leave you stranded in the muck and mire of mediocrity. Your dreams and goals will die from strangulation by fear. Choose the second option and you’ll push past your fear with grim determination.

When you come out on the other side, you’ll be emotionally stronger, mentally tougher and you’ll taste the fruits of success. There is no other way. You only have 2 options. Choose the second one. Everything you want is on the other side of fear.

In this guide we’ll look at 5 of the most common fears that plague most online marketers and how you can calm your beating heart.

1. Fear of the Unknown

This is probably one of the biggest fears that entrepreneurs face. When you’re starting your own business, while you may have done your homework and prepared the best you can, there will ALWAYS be a certain degree of uncertainty. That’s just the way it is. You must always remember that you can’t discover new lands if you’re afraid to lose sight of the shore.

You have to push through and go with your heart, even if it’s beating uncontrollably fast. Sometime in 1999, there was a movie called “3 Kings”. In one scene in the movie, a young soldier who was feeling afraid would approach Sergeant Major Archie Gates (George Clooney) with a question and he’d reply.”The way this works is. You do the thing you’re scared sh*tless of and you get the courage after you do it. Not before you do it.”

This is very true and it applies across the board. If you’re worried that you may not have the skills to create an online business, go ahead and do it anyway. Then learn as you go along. You must have the faith to take the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase. The best way to put an end to your fear of the unknown is to have faith.
You must believe in yourself and what you’re trying to achieve.

There are thousands of people who come online in droves hoping to make quick and easy money. Most of them fail and quit. The road to online success is paved with the corpses of the many who have tried and quit. They quit because they didn’t believe in themselves and they let fear take over. Like John Stewart Mill said, “One person with belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who only have interest.”

The next time you have doubts and fears, ask yourself why you’re feeling them. Maybe you’ve been making a stable income online but you’re worried about quitting your day job because of the security it provides. By asking yourself why you have this fear, you’ll understand that what you really fear is that you might have no money in case your online business dries up.

Now you’ll be able to make plans such as saving up enough money that will last you six months in case of any unexpected setbacks. This is a plan of action. If you do not analyze your fears and all you do is let them control you and hold you back, your life will become stagnant and in almost all cases, there will be retrogression. The only way to progress is to keep moving forward whether or not you have fears.

2. The Fear of Failure

This is another major fear that paralyzes so many marketers from taking action on their goals and dreams. The fear of failure has stopped more people in their tracks than any other fear. Usually this fear is disguised in many different ways. If you worry that all your efforts will go to waste when your online efforts earn you no money, that’s a fear of failure. Most people say that they just ‘don’t want to waste their time on something that won’t work.’

The hard truth is that you’ll never know unless you try. It may take you 3 years to build an online business that’s making you six figures a year. But guess what? If you don’t try because you’re scared that you’ll fail, the time is going to pass anyway.

The 3 years will go by and chances are your life will probably be the same. Whereas if you had moved forward with your goals, you just might be in the six figure income category. A lot of people fear failure because it will make them look foolish in front of their friends and family. They do not want to endure criticism or sneers from their peers.
This fear is really unnecessary.

What others think of you should be the least of your concerns. In fact, you may notice that when you try to better yourself and do things that others don’t do, your friends and family will probably be your hardest critics and they’ll call it ‘concern’ or ‘tough love.’The truth of the matter is that you making progress and achieving your goals shines a spotlight on their failures.

It makes them feel threatened and the only way for them to feel better is to drag you down to their level so that the status quo can be maintained. This is life and by understanding that what others think of you is none of your business, this fear of looking foolish will disappear all on its own. Lao Tzu once said, “Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”

The best way to deal with the fear of failure is to ask yourself what could possibly go wrong. Now plan out what countermeasures you can take to prevent your endeavors from failing. Spend time visualizing yourself pushing past obstacles and succeeding. Repeat this visualization process daily and even a couple of times a day. This will give you faith and belief in yourself to keep going forward.

3. The Fear That You Are Not Good Enough

This fear arises when one has failed several times throughout life. Many people do not do well academically while in school because they had no natural affinity to the subjects they were learning. The girl who was gifted at art probably failed at math and science and couldn’t go further than high school. This failure may make her feel like she can’t succeed at anything in life even though she has all the potential to be a successful artist.

The very wise Albert Einstein once said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The point of that statement is that one should not judge themselves based on how they performed in school or previous jobs. There are countless stories of people who failed many times and finally succeeded beyond their wildest dreams once they found their true calling.

Never give up on yourself. Fortune favors the bold. Usually when you’re trying to build an online business, there will be a learning curve that you’ll have to go through. This is inevitable. You will make mistakes. You will buy products that are rubbish. And you will waste time and money. This too is normal and can’t be avoided. However, if you quit while at this stage because you feel like you’re not good enough, you’ll NEVER get better.

You only get better as you keep learning and progressing. Many beginners look at the expert marketers and feel intimidated. They believe that the other guys are smarter, richer and better than them. Do not compare yourself with others. This is a huge mistake and will always leave you feeling discontented. You may be comparing your beginning with someone else’s finish. It’s not fair to you and you’ll be doing yourself a disservice. All you need to do is focus on being the best that you can be.

Here’s the truth. Everybody started off as a beginner. You do not become successful overnight. There is a journey that you have to go through and go through it you must. Fearing that you’ll never amount to much will mean that you have given up before you even started. You must have confidence. Chalk up every little failure that you encounter along the way as a learning experience. You can’t extrapolate from incomplete data. The more you learn, the better you’ll get.

The more mistakes you make the better. Failure is not the opposite of success. It is a part of success. You are good enough. You’ve always been. You just need to believe it.

4. The Fear That You’re Late or Too Old

This is another big one. You may have heard terms like ‘Article marketing is dead or ‘The good ol’ days are over’ ‘You’re too old to start a business’… But are these statements even true? Of course not. While some methods may come and go, building a business online is here to stay and every single day there are people reaching their income goals. It’s never too late to start and now is as good a time as any.

You’re also never too old to set new goals or dream new dreams. Stan Lee created his first hit comic close to his 39th birthday. Henry Ford was 45 when he created the Model T car. Ray Croc only started MacDonald’s at the age of 52 and Colonel Sanders was 62 when he franchised KFC.As you can see, people have succeeded in life at all ages. You’re never too old. So cast this fear aside and pursue your dreams today.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese proverb

5. Limiting Beliefs

Just when you were expecting another fear, you’ve been hit with ‘limiting beliefs’. It may be surprising but it’s true. There are many people who have been held back from success because of their own beliefs. There is an emotional disconnect within them. The reason for this is that while growing up, we formed our beliefs based on what we saw, what we heard and what we were told.

One good example will be overweight people who feel like they’re ‘destined’ to be fat. Their parents, siblings, relatives and everyone close to them is overweight so they buy into the story that they are naturally predisposed to obesity.
While to a certain extent it could be true because some people have a naturally slower metabolism, the truth of the matter is that food choices, eating habits, attitudes towards food, etc. are often passed down from parents to the kids.

Because of this, all they ever knew about food and eating is what they saw and heard. If they decided to eat clean, exercise more and watch their calories, they’d definitely lose all the excess pounds and probably end up being the leanest person in their family. But getting to this stage requires one to overcome their limited thinking and believe that they are worthy of success.

The same applies to people who grew up in poor families where the parents made it look like money was hard to come by or that rich people were evil and greedy… while poor people were generous and kind. With beliefs like these, their subconscious mind will not allow them to build wealth because they wouldn’t want to be evil and greedy, would they?

Overcoming your limited self-beliefs is a Herculean task but it can be done. You will need to be proactive and actually be alert to the way you think and correct yourself. Once you realize that your only limit is you, your life will change and you’ll conquer this obstacle. You are worthy of success.

By now you’ll realize that fear is false evidence appearing real. The best way to conquer fear is through action. Analyzing why you feel the way you feel is helpful, but nothing beats action when it comes to dispelling fear. Do what you fear most and the fear will vanish.

Never let your fear decide your future. Make a good plan, have contingencies in place and work your plan till you succeed. Even during the darkest hours when everything around you may feel like it’s all about to collapse and all your fears are telling you that you’re about to fail, dig your heels in and keep pushing forward.
It’s always darkest before the dawn. Keep going.