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‘Conquering Fear’ Is Really Just A Shift In Perspective
How becoming a small business owner challenged several lingering fears.
Fear is one of the greatest challenges we all face.
I’m not focusing on evolutionary fear, the kind that prevented our ancestors from being eaten by tigers. No, I’m talking about the fears we gather and shackle to ourselves over time. The fears that our societal and cultural perceptions duct tape to us. The fears that we take on from our parents and the foundations of our being.
These fears we take onto ourselves are really only questions we don’t want to answer because they’d turn everything we thought we knew upside down.
For me, these questions DID turn everything upside down.
The question, “What if I’m truly worthless?” came from the change in income since launching my business. Even though I knew this would be an investment and would take a period of time to adjust, even though my partner got a raise that covers what I was previously making (that’s a wild story) and we’re totally fine, I still couldn’t stand the thought of not making money right away. This wasn’t just a feeling of discomfort, this manifested as full-blown panic and earth-shattering self-hatred. I truly felt worthless.
