Have you ever let fear stop you from doing something you either wanted to do or needed to do?

It’s part of being human. Fear is hardwired into our brains from the time we’re born. All babies begin life with two fears:

1. Fear of falling
2. Fear of loud noises

Fear can be protective, but it can also be limiting, so it’s important to deal with fear so you understand if your fear is helping or hindering your success in life.

Good parents instill a sense of healthy fear in children with rules like, “Never cross the street without looking both ways.”

We don’t always feel a sense of fear and yet live with subconscious fears that govern our actions. Often fear is internalized by lifelong habits of avoiding activity that feels uncomfortable.

Unhealthy fear involves a mindset that is based on stories we tell ourselves that aren’t based on truth. We develop irrational fears and allow those fears to govern us up until the point that we get fed up with how fear has limited our potential.

Victory over fear requires a decision to be courageous in the face of danger or difficulty. When we are able to act with courage rather than shrink back in fear, we frequently experience a sense that our fear and apprehension is unfounded.

When we fear good things like success and connectedness, it’s not really the good thing we’re afraid of. Those types of fears tend to follow achieving some measure of what we want and then losing it. Fear of what’s on the other side or fear of losing any gains is really the thing we’re afraid of.

Fear is sometimes good for a season, but it’s rarely good for very long. It leads to a sense of stagnation and a feeling of frustration.

The key to overcoming limiting fear is to take action. Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain. When you face your fears it proves your fear is wrong about you and your potential. If you are still stuck, find a person who will hold you accountable until you experience your breakthrough. Don’t let fear hold you back.

#Girlboss is the autobiography of an entrepreneur who started a company called Nasty Gal.

Sophia Amoruso was a young hot mess with no focus, or ambition until she kinds of stumbled upon something she was better than great at.

She started selling old vintage clothes on Ebay and without knowing that “margin” is another word for profit, started making killer margins. She’d buy a dress at an estate sale for $8 and sell it for $1000. That’s a killer margin!

As one successful sale followed another, she realized she was good at this way of making money. She invested her heart and mind into being better and better at it.

Other people in the vintage space on Ebay started getting jealous that Sophia’s stuff was selling for so much more than theirs that some of them actually worked to sabotage her progress instead of working to do the job as well as she was doing it.

She figured out, she wasn’t in the business of reselling old stuff. She was in the business of restyling old stuff to make it edgy, modern, and desirable. Because of the effort Sophia put in, her customers were more than willing to pay more.

She says, “One thing you should know about me is when I hear no, I rarely listen.”

One of the things I love about people who create outrageously personal businesses is that those are the only people I feel like it would be fun to work with and for.

In #GIRLBOSS, Sophia goes out of her way to encourage people who didn’t feel at home in school that they can still achieve outstanding things in life by sometimes following the rules, but often by rewriting them.

___________________

Download the mp3 of this podcast here.