Source: Funders and Founders
1. Fear comes from thinking you don’t know enough – when a CEO makes a decision they on average have only 10% of the information they need. 10% is very low for most people. The average person has at least 50% of the information they need. Naturally, people who force themselves to make decisions at 10% are scared. That is normal.
2. Another fear buster is just trusting your gut. First you have to make the assumption that for one reason or another your gut is right. That should be easy when you realize that you on’t have much choice- if not your gut, then whose gut are you going to trust?
3. Thinking about the worst case scenario makes you realize the worst is not that bad. I thought about my worst case scenario before I launched my Kickstarter campaign. Not only did I think about it, I actually went and found the most unsuccessful campaigns on Kickstarter, with $0 dollars pledged and imagined that it was mine. Would it be that bad? Yes, it would be completely devasting. But what would I do? I would change something, and still write the book. Basically no matter what happened with the campaign I still had a change to do the most important thing- write the book – but a failed campaign would make it a lot harder. Even though, I clicked the Launch button.
4. You can game your fear. I notice that when I am just doing my job, which is to write the book and make info graphics, fear goes away. When you think about work, your brain can’t focus on the fear. So you a playing a game, the more you do, the less you are scared.
5. Finally, once you just do something you realize it is nowhere near being as scary as you think. Thin about any big and scary thing you have ever done – do you look back and get scared? Mostly likely not. So, as Richard Branson says, “Screw it, Let’s do it!” I think he says that not because he has not fear. He learned that once you start doing, you can’t be afraid any more.
[Editor’s Note: This article was written by Anna Vital and originally published at Funders And Founders. Copyright 2013.]
