What's Holding You Back? How to Break Past The FEAR!

Do you ever feel that you have all these ideas and goals, and you know what you want, or maybe you aren’t sure, because there are sooo many ideas, and then you just don’t take action because, let’s face it YOU ARE AFRAID!

Is it fear of failure? Is it fear of the unknown? It could even be fear of success!

How do we move past this fear? How can we stop “staring like a deer caught in the headlights” and TURN OUR BRIGHTS ON and go forward? It takes just one step, and then the next, but you must do all the things that you’ve heard before - Get out of your comfort zone, take the first step, do something scary, spread your wings.

Well, that is all good and fine to say, but if you are staring and not able to move, HOW do you do that? I put together a system to help you start to move forward. Take a little bit of time, and see if it can help you get unstuck and move forward.

1: Let’s assess what might be holding you back. Take a few minutes to brainstorm WHY you think you are afraid. Write literally everything and anything that comes into your head. Set a timer for 5 minutes and see what you write!

2: Time to circle and highlight. Now that you’ve put it all out on paper, take a look at what you wrote and highlight or circle the ones that are most true, and that really resonate with your feelings. You Can even rank them from the most fearful to the least.

3: Draw a line down the middle of a blank piece of paper and write your fears/what’s holding you back on the left side. On the right side, you are going to write down ways you can overcome them. (You may want to take a timer again and brainstorm these answers.) Remember, there is no wrong or right answer, it is what you are thinking.

4: This step is where you write down “What is the BEST thing that can happen” if you make your goal? The worst thing that can happen is what is holding you back, or the possibility of what can happen. However, if you stay exactly where you are and you don’t take any action or step towards what you want, your worst case scenario is actually playing itself out!

5: You now know what is holding you back (your fear), ideas on what to do to get you to overcome it, and what a best case scenario is. NOW let’s make an action plan. Take it one step at a time. Set that timer again, and write down actions that you will take to get you to your goal.

6: Time to put those action steps in order so that you can start climbing that STAIRCASE towards your goal. Label them step one, two, three etc.

Now, like Kris Kringle said to the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus is Coming to Town: “Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walking (a)cross the floor. Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walking out the door!” (Yes, I know all the words to every song in that children’s Christmas television movie, and it has always inspired me.) In other words, just take one step, one action, and then go to the next step and very soon you will be moving faster toward achieving your goals.

It is quite easy to have fear and feel stuck. It happens to EVERYONE/ALL OF US!! The trick is to not let it keep you stuck, and learn to find ways to get past it. (Here’s a little secret. I was feeling stuck and I created this for myself, and just went through the process! When I say all of us go through this, I MEAN EVERYONE!)

I hope this system I put together for you, helps you take that first step, and then the next.

Wishing you much success in your journey.

If you’d like more help towards reaching your goals, you might like my free Refresh Your Why Guide. It helps you define your why (which may have changed) so that you can have a strong sense of why you want to achieve your goals, and that will help you push past your fears.

Refresh Your Why Guide