Starting something new can be really scary, so the times I have been feeling the fear over Good News Shared should not have come as a surprise to me.
Recently I have started to give my fear too much power. I have started to really believe the niggling doubts I have been feeling. This has stopped me from achieving as much as I could each day.
The good news is I have recognised what I am doing, and importantly, I am taking steps to stop.
Attending the Makers of More event held by Ashoka UK and Arthur Guinness Projects really helped me put things in perspective, and to realise that I am not alone in feeling scared.
Five incredible social entrepreneurs were sat on the stage having just spent 7 minutes telling an audience of 350 people about their work. All five social entrepreneurs have been creating change and achieving their dreams. They have all felt fear. And yet they have achieved so much.
They feel the fear and do it anyway
In fact, Pamela Chng, Founder of Bettr Barista in Singapore, focused her talk on the issue of fear.
Bettr Barista is a social enterprise which provides disadvantaged and underprivileged women with the skills and tools to improve their lives. The academy’s 12-week programme helps marginalised women and youth-at-risk become more employable by not only training them to become certified baristas, but also by providing counselling as well as training to help them build confidence and re-enter the labour force. At the end of the course, the students are helped to gain employment within the Bettr Group, partner organisations or are provided with an opportunity to run their own start-up.
The fact that Pamela focused on fear shows how important she thinks it is. During her talk we heard about how she has lived the better part of her life in fear. Fear of not being good enough, of being powerless, of being ordinary. She realised she lacked the emotional capital to be who she really is.
The three steps Pamela says we need to go through to move past fear are:
- Acknowledge the fear: If you do not see that you are fearful of something you will not be able to work past it
- Assimilate the fear: understand fully what is making you feel like this
- Make plans and take action: You know what is creating the fear, so now you can decide on the steps to conquer your fear
Pamela stressed how important it is for us to go through these steps and not let fear overcome us. We need to unlock fear so we can have imagination, and we need to have imagination to be able to dream of a better world.
Parting advice from Pamela was: “Just do it! It’s OK if you make a mistake, you can try again”.
It must have taken great strength for Pamela to talk about her vulnerability in front of so many people. Pamela’s inspiring talk, and the realisation that everyone feels the fear really helped me see that my situation is not unique. I can see now that there are two paths I can take – I can let fear overcome me, or I can accept that fear is a natural emotion and I can continue forward despite this fear.
I know it won’t be easy, but I am choosing the second option. To feel the fear and do it anyway. Who’s with me?
