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Is Financial Fear Holding You Back From What You Want?
Is Financial Fear Holding You Back From What You Want?
This is possibly the biggest fear that can keep you tossing and turning at night because again, it’s linked to your survival. If financial fears get out of control, they can develop into an obsession with money or breed toxic emotions like envy or jealousy of people who are wealthier.
Financial fear takes on different forms and shapes depending on your circumstances. You might be living from paycheck to paycheck and barely able to make ends meet. You could be struggling to pay off a student loan or keep up with your mortgage payments.
Unexpected medical bills may be eating away at your savings, or you may worry about not being able to save at all. You could be worried about your partner’s overspending or how you’ll manage if you lose your job. Financial fears are very personalized, but they all revolve around one thing – financial security.
Financial fears are very valid but again, we often tend to let them take over our minds and keep us in a perpetual state of worry and anxiety. Even people who are financially secure may develop an obsessive fear of losing all they have. In extreme cases, this type of fear can become a phobia.
How it holds you back
Financial fear is a major stressor because it usually plagues you most of the day (and night) rather than in a specific situation. So, its first impact is going to be on your health. High stress levels will keep you feeling fatigued, lifeless, and demotivated.
Your immune system becomes weakened, leaving you more open to illness and just poor health overall. Mentally, financial worries can lead to depression, chronic anxiety, and isolation.
When you’re not at your best physically and mentally, everything in your life suffers. What’s worse, financial fears can keep you trapped in a negative cycle where it’s very difficult to think clearly about solutions – much less act.
Action Steps
Here are 3 quick action steps you can take to stop financial fear from holding you back.
Save
Financial experts recommend putting 10% of your income into a savings account. $10 out of every $100 is a negligible sum and you’ll hardly notice the deduction. However, in a savings account, those small sums very quickly accumulate and can become very substantial over time.
A great idea is to create a separate emergency fund and divide savings between that and your regular savings account. That way, you have something put aside for emergencies like appliances or cars breaking down and other unexpected expenses.
Stick To A Budget
If you stick to a budget and cut down on unnecessary expenses (three cable TV subscriptions and gourmet ice cream are not essentials!) you should be able to live well within your income and put something towards your savings as well.
The thing with budgets is that people seem to think they’re made to be broken! So, be firm and keep a strict eye on overspending.
Create New Income Streams
There are dozens of ways to make extra income online with no cost or very minimal investment. You can set up two or three of these income streams at once. This can easily be managed in your spare time and some have the potential for making very decent money.
Consider affiliate marketing, dropshipping, posting YouTube videos, or publishing an eBook on Kindle. None of these schemes require much experience and with dozens of tutorials on YouTube, you can easily set up your chosen income stream.
These are just a few of the ways that you can make some extra money with very little effort. Now, this income won’t be very big but it will certainly come in handy when you need some spare cash.
Note: These strategies are not going to make you rich overnight or solve all your financial problems. However, they’ll provide you with a small safety cushion that will significantly alleviate your financial fears and give you some peace of mind.
More importantly, these little security nets will relieve your financial anxieties, allowing you to focus on bigger solutions to improve your financial situation.
Closely linked to financial fear is the fear of security, so let’s take a look at that in this article too.
Security Fears
Emotional security, job security, health security, and financial security are extremely important for our mental wellbeing and productivity. Security fears also play on your inner sense of self-worth and, in severe cases, can lead to inferiority complexes and social isolation.
How it holds you back
When you’re insecure in a relationship or don’t feel accepted by your peers, your self-confidence plummets. It’s a no-brainer that low self-confidence will affect the way you think and act in your career, personal and social life.
When you feel insecure in your job, the fear of making mistakes causes you to box yourself into your job role and do only what’s required of you. You’re not motivated to be creative or innovative or put in more than the minimum effort. What’s the point if you think you’re going to lose your job anyway?
Health insecurity may be a result of guilt because you know you drink too much, eat unhealthy food and are just careless with your health. It may be due to a history of family health issues as well. As for financial insecurity, we’ve discussed how it can drag you into a cycle of anxiety and worry that stifles your ability to be your best.
Action Steps
Here are 6 quick action steps you can take to stop fear of security from holding you back.
See A Financial Adviser
If financial security is preying on your fears, a financial advisor can help you in many ways. He’ll look at your income and expenses and help you create a suitable budget. He’ll suggest investments and other ways to generate more wealth.
A financial advisor will also guide you towards the best way to manage debts if you have them and suggest effective ways to curb overspending. If you’re feeling a bit lost and confused, an expert opinion can dispel many of your financial insecurities.
Financial advisors aren’t just for rich people! They’ll work with anyone including people who are struggling financially, as well as people who are feeling financially insecure. It’s an investment worth making if your insecurity is holding you back.
Foster Relationships
First and foremost, get out of abusive or destructive relationships immediately. They don’t just hold you back but drag you down to a very bad place – you deserve better. The same goes for exploitative friendships and associations with people who are overly negative and critical. Phase them out of your life.
Next, work on the relationships that really matter to you. Nurture and foster relationships with family, loved ones and supportive friends. Your love and support will be reciprocated in full measure.
Strong, healthy relationships greatly strengthen your emotional security. You know that these people can be counted on to give you support, encouragement, and love you for who you are.
Have A Strong Support Network
In addition to your great relationships, having a strong peer network can be very effective in dispelling emotional insecurity. This can be a peer group related to your career, special interest, or causes you’re passionate about.
Exchanging ideas, sharing experience, and being part of an active peer network can provide you with immense support and encouragement when you need it.
Live Healthily
No further explanations are needed here. You know what you’re doing right or wrong health-wise. Take care of yourself!
When you’re healthy, you feel it. In fact, you feel great.
Knowing you’re doing your part to stay fit boosts your confidence about your health.
Up Your Expertise
Quell your job insecurity by staying at the top of your game. Keep growing and learning as much as you can to expand your scope of expertise.
In the case that you do lose your job, you know that you’re perfectly qualified to find a better one!
This can give you a real confidence boost as well as peace of mind, plus this may also help you to perform better in your current role as you are now more relaxed about the future.
Nurture Your Emotional Health
Practice your faith or take up meditation to boost your emotional resilience and inner tranquility. Spiritual practices of all kinds are great for building strong emotional health.
When you’re emotionally strong, you’re better able to confront your fears and address them rather than let them take control of your life.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
2 Fears That Could Be Holding You Back From Success
2 Fears That Could Be Holding You Back From Success
Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said in a speech, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” If you take the statement literally, it doesn’t really make sense because you can’t really be afraid of fear.
What Roosevelt was trying to say is that fear is a crippling emotion that can hold back nations and individuals from achieving greatness. In that sense, the consequences of fear can be terrifying.
Here are a couple of the most common fears and a few tips on how to overcome them.
Fear Of Risk
Risk is related to a perceived loss resulting from an action. Oftentimes, there’s also a potential gain but we tend to magnify the loss while minimizing the gains. The fear of taking risks is a very strong primal fear related to our survival instinct where our prehistoric ancestors were surrounded by peril. Taking risks could mean getting eaten by wild animals or some other horrible death.
This fear remains very strong in us and is the first emotion that overcomes us when we think of taking important action.
How it holds you back
Let’s say you want to start your own business. You have a great idea for a useful product or service that’s scalable. There’s an audience for it and your initial market research tells you it will be in demand. You’re very excited. Then, the fear of risk kicks in and your mind starts bombarding you with ‘what if?’
What if the idea’s not so good after all? What if you take out a loan and can’t repay it? What if the product doesn’t sell? What if the market collapses? What if there’s a nuclear war and you lose everything?
The ‘what if’ questions typically escalate into gloom and doom scenarios until the fear paralyzes you into inaction. Realistically, if there’s a nuclear war, everybody’s going to be out of business, aren’t they? This is how the concept of risk can really play on your fear of loss.
Your fear ends up holding you back from, doing something that can have some real benefits for you. So, you ditch the idea and decide to stay on in a job you hate that’s stifling your potential and ambition. You convince yourself that being miserable is safer than failing miserably!
Now, consider the alternative: you realistically assess the risks involved, plan for them and start your own business. You embark on an exciting journey when you become your own boss, take control of your life, and grow a super successful business. This is just one example of how fear of risk can hold you back from great things.
Action Steps
Highly successful people have a unique mindset. They don’t shy away from risk but rather, they see it as a challenge that can always be overcome, and the reward always outweighs the risk. That’s what makes successful people great! You can develop this mindset and conquer your fear of taking risks with the following strategies:
Assess And Evaluate Risks
Identify your desired outcome. Let’s stick with the example of starting your own business. Realistically and honestly assess the risks related to the outcome.
In this case, they could be using your savings for capital, taking out a loan and changing interest rates or liabilities or hazards related to your product. I would also include the risk of not making any income from the business for a few months until it’s up and running.
Weigh the desired outcome (establishing a successful business) against the risks involved and honestly assess the possibility of these risks really happening. You’ll most likely find that the outcome or goal is worth the risks.
Assessing possible risks and putting them into proportion usually shows you that they’re not as bad as you imagined, not likely to happen or if they do, can be managed.
Plan For Risk
When you’ve identified all the possible risks, create a risk management plan for each one. This will give you tremendous peace of mind and confidence because you’re mentally prepared and your back is covered.
Having a risk management plan or a plan B will arm you with the tools to immediately take action to mitigate or eliminate risks with the least possible losses. Oftentimes, many of the imagined risks never come to pass but having a plan B is one of the most powerful ways to break your fear of risk.
Set Clear Goals
Always define your goal or goals clearly and factor in the potential risks. Include sub-goals of steps you need to take to avoid risk. Your goal map should include benchmarks or timeframes where you stop and assess your progress to ensure that all is on track and to make modifications if something seems to be heading towards a risk.
OK, let’s move onto the second fear that may be holding you back from the success you desire (and deserve).
Fear Of Failure
Failure can have tangible repercussions such as material or financial loss as well as emotional consequences such as the loss of reputation, respect, and self-pride. In most cases, the emotional associations come into play more to hold us back.
Failure is associated with negative qualities like incompetence, inexperience, poor skills, low intelligence, and other qualities that cause emotional distress.
How it holds you back
Quite simply, nobody wants to be regarded as a loser. This is why the fear of failure leads to three negative and debilitating habits:
- Procrastination
- Overthinking
- Inability to make timely decisions
It’s not hard to see how these three habits can hold you back from seizing new opportunities, taking initiatives, and embracing challenges, all of which can help you function at your best and achieve success.
What’s more, the fear of failure saps your self-confidence. The more it keeps you stuck in place, the more you become convinced that you don’t have what it takes to do any better. It’s a vicious and very crippling cycle.
Action Steps
Highly successful people have a unique mindset. Firstly, they don’t acknowledge the word ‘failure’ but rather, refer to it as a setback. Secondly, they see setbacks as challenges that can always be overcome. That’s what makes successful people great! You can develop this mindset and conquer your fear of failure with the following strategies:
Reframe Past Failures
We’re often ashamed of our past failures and avoid reflecting on them. But reframing past failures can decrease your fears. Firstly, remind yourself that you may have made some very big mistakes in the past – but so has everyone else on the planet.
Secondly, reflect on how your mistakes are part of who you are today. For better or worse, they’ve shaped your character and they’ve made you wiser and stronger. Finally, reflect on the lessons learned and how they’ve helped you avoid making the same mistakes again.
Reframe and reflect on your past failures in this way and you’ll begin to see that failure can have a positive effect.
Learn New Skills
These can be skills related to your career, tech skills, or communication and listening skills to improve your relationships, leadership skills and so on. The goal is to give your self-confidence a big boost.
Having a varied toolset of skills and expertise gives you the confidence to be more proactive and eager to take initiatives to improve yourself and your life. This strategy is a huge fear of failure buster.
Reflect On Your Greatness
Reflect on your special skills and talents that make you unique from everyone else. This is a great exercise to engage in when you’re procrastinating or overthinking.
These unique skills would be a great creative mind, powerful analytical skills, great people skills and so on. Celebrate your unique qualities as often as you can because it’s the best way to overcome negative self-talk and tell yourself that you can do anything well if when you put your mind to it.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
How To Act In Spite Of Your Fear
How To Act In Spite Of Fear
What makes successful people different to others? In all honesty there are a number of factors, but a lot of it boils down to taking action that others aren’t prepared to take.
And why don’t people take action? At the root of it is fear and this can manifest in a number of ways.
Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of being judged and even fear of success holds many people back from achieving their true potential and this is so sad.
How do you overcome fear and take action anyway? Well, hopefully this article will give you some pointers to take action when you are scared and to help you overcome self-doubt.
Taking Action Even When You’re Scared To Death
Fear is a normal emotion. Sometimes, it can be beneficial because it makes you aware of risks, keeps you alert, and improves mental focus.
However, too much fear will have the opposite effect. Don’t fret as even the most successful people experience this feeling.
The key is to prevent it from dictating your actions.
The Many Shades OF Fear
This human emotion isn’t all black and white. Fear can take many forms, from mild anxiety to downright debilitating overthinking. Under certain circumstances, it can protect you from danger and stop impulsive behaviors.
But, because it’s closely tied into your gut instinct, it can also help you improve your decision making.
But not all types of fear are good for you. In fact, this emotion often does more harm than good. It can keep you from reaching your full potential, fuel procrastination, and cause stress.
Let’s say you want to quit your 9-to-5 job and start a creative agency or work as a freelance web designer. You might be afraid that you’ll lose time and money if things don’t work out as you planned. What if you won’t have enough clients? Or what if you get sick and can’t work anymore?
The risks are real, so it’s normal to experience fear. However, you’ll never know what you’re missing if you don’t try. Who knows? You might have a huge success and build a loyal customer base.
Five years from now on, you could have enough money to buy the home of your dreams. Do you want to live your life wondering What if?
How To Conquer Your Fear
No matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to get rid of fear completely. Instead, you should make it your ally.
Picture yourself reaching your goal, whatever it is. Imagine the worst-case scenario and then come up with a backup plan.
Ask yourself: what are the facts? Am I making assumptions? What’s the best thing that can happen? Who can I call for help?
Use your fear as a source of guidance. Assess your inner fears and seek possible solutions. Using our example above, you could start a web design side hustle in addition to your regular job.
This way, if your business fails, you’ll still have an income. If it keeps growing, turn it into a full-time job. With this approach, you’ll get to do what you want and mitigate risks.
6 Tips For Getting A Grip On Self-Doubt
Did you know that a whopping 85 percent of people have low-esteem? This issue affects their personal and professional lives, including their careers, their health, and their salaries.
In other words, self-doubt and low self-esteem can keep you from reaching your peak potential.
These personality traits appear to be more common among women. They develop in childhood and either exacerbate or diminish with time.
If self-doubt plagues you, check out these tips to boost your confidence and trust yourself more:
Accept Yourself
Self-doubt is part of being human. Embrace it and turn it into a strength. When used correctly, this personality trait can help you make better decisions, instead of rushing things.
Think of it as a tool that guides your actions and keeps you from making costly mistakes.
Just make sure you don’t overuse it though because self-doubt can also make you question your sanity and decision-making abilities.
Know You’re Not Alone
Even the most successful people have doubts. They often question their actions and wonder what the right thing to do is.
Focus on building your confidence and self-esteem.
You might never get rid of doubts, but you can stop them from taking over your life.
Get the Facts
Your doubts don’t necessarily reflect the truth. Most times, they mirror your fears and emotional struggles.
Think about your achievements and how hard you worked to get where you are today. Be proud of yourself and admire your capabilities.
Whenever you’re in doubt, get the facts straight. Research the problem in question, weigh the pros and cons and ask for a second opinion.
Acknowledge Your Strengths
Make a list of things you excel in. Write down your skills and accomplishments. Accept praise from others gracefully and acknowledge your talent.
Celebrate your strengths every single day. Make positive affirmations and remind yourself how much you’ve done so far.
Stop thinking of what you could have done better.
Choose Your Friends Wisely
Negative people can drag you down and ruin your self-esteem.
Nothing will ever be good enough for them.
That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with positive people who support you and listen to you instead of judging.
Define Your Values
Lastly, define your values and the values you live by daily. Once you establish those, you will have a more realistic perspective of the current situation.
Focus on the things that drive your actions and are at the core of your beliefs.
Overcoming self-doubt is a lifelong process. Stop questioning your own decisions. Don’t waste time overanalyzing – trust your actions and put your plans in motion.
Simple Ways To Overcome Your Fear Of Taking Massive Action
Don’t fault yourself for being afraid of taking that big step–the massive action that needs to happen to realize your dream! It’s a natural response to moving out of your comfort zone.
But while you shouldn’t rebuke yourself for feeling fearful, neither should you wallow in it so that you never get past it.
When fear rears its ugly head, use these simple tactics to put it in perspective and move on.
Recognize Fear Is Only A Feeling
Fear can feel very, very real. But it’s only an emotion that survives and thrives when we dwell on it and start to believe it.
The first step in mastering your fear of taking massive action is to remember to tell yourself that fear isn’t real–that it’s only a feeling that can’t hurt you.
And taking action can remove that fear, so hat have you got to lose?
Everyone Has Experienced Fear Of Failure
Everyone experiences fear before they try something new. Think Tony Robbins hasn’t experienced fear of failure? Sure he has, and I’m sure he would tell you that himself.
Everyone has experienced fear of failure, the fear of looking like a fool, the fear of losing friends when you become too famous, too wealthy, too thin, or whatever.
When a moment of panic comes over you, image your role model and remember that they too have experienced fear. But they moved through it anyway.
Take The First Small Step
We’ve all heard Newton’s 1st Law of Motion: A body at rest tends to stay at rest, while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.
Notice that feeling of fear, and then take that first small step in spite of it. You will feel amazing after you’ve done that one little thing.
You’ll realize that you can do it, and you’ll be excited to take that next step. Fear will be replaced by enthusiasm!
Use A Lifeline
Sometimes we recognize fear for what it is but can’t seem to get over the hurdle anyway. That’s the right time to call in some reinforcements.
Get a hold of a friend, colleague or family member who is totally on board with your goal.
Buy them a cup of coffee and talk to them about your feelings. Use them as a sounding board, ask for their advice or just come on out and ask for a pep talk!
This person loves you and has faith that you can achieve your goal, so you don’t need to worry about being embarrassed to tell them that fear has you in a paralyzing grip!
They will support you through each step you take; sometimes all we need is to hear a person we love and admire tell us it will be all right.
Would you be interested in a handy checklist that can keep you on track and take action? If the answer is yes, check out the featured resource below; download, read it and take action 🙂
