it is all in the fear

so much of what prevents us moving from forward with anything that we want to accomplish is based in fear.
monday i met a perspective new client who wanted to declutter her home office. now the rest of the house was immaculate to the point of feeling non-lived in. the glass cabinets in the dining room and living room had some household items but not much. there was no feeling that a family with two children under the age of three lived here. i suspect the mom came from a cluttered home and so she wanted the opposite effect. but then she showed me the office...also known as the dumping room. it looked like this room had been swallowing up the items of the rest of the house. my suggestion was to first purge...the three item check list of don't want, need or use. then the second session is the reorganization process. it was a pretty straight forward job and i knew it would have big results. the mom seemed pretty excited. she said that she constantly feels like she is cleaning the house and moving items around the house. nothing had a set place. this is a job i could handle.
fast forward one day to voice mail message from the mom. she decided to cancel. she was afraid. now when i looked at what needed to be done it could not seem easier. two day gig of about six hours total and the end result...a nice warm, user friendly home. the fear was stopping her. we all have some kind of fear and many times it can really get in our way. yes, i have them too.
mine? fear of not making this business work. fear of not having regular pay checks. fear what other people think of me. fear of "failure". what to do?
first, acknowledge the fear. second ask is this a rational fear. are the fears emotionally based? now we don't want to have our head in the sand. we also need to look at facts based on those fears. if any of them have validity then i must look at that and make decisions. then i ask myself what kind of help do i need. one of the best things that works for this is to just talk with my husband about anything else besides my business. taking my mind away from the intense focus usually gives me some clarity. and occasionally in that time a new thought will come to me that will be a solution. help can be such a great solution to our fears.
so today notice if there are things that you would like to do accomplish but your fear is holding you back. now ask yourself what is the fear? congrats, you have completed step one.