Is fear keeping you from taking the plunge and starting your guitar teaching business, or from doing something BOLD to take it to the next level?
This is a subject I happen to know a lot about. If I had to pick one overriding emotion that tries to dominate my life on a daily basis, fear would win the prize. The thing is, I’m learning how to take those feelings of FEAR and turn them around and use them as FUEL to make my business and my life EVEN MORE SUCCESSFUL.
Fear is a natural response that kicks in when there’s some risk involved in something you want to do…anything from starting your own business, to talking to an attractive member of the opposite sex. It’s like something in your gut screams out “ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?!”
Fear is just a feeling
I think the emotion of fear was probably originally intended to keep us from doing something stupid to injure ourselves, but it can end up being a roadblock to your happiness and success. After all, fear is just a feeling. Like every other feeling, you can CHOOSE how to react to it. You can let it PARALYZE you and keep you from taking action…or you can OVERRIDE it by:
- Feeling the fear
- Doing the thing you’re afraid of anyway
I’m pretty sure this is exactly what you have to do when you go skydiving (even though I haven’t had the guts to try it myself!)…everything in you is telling you to stay put, but you choose to trust in your parachute…and you close your eyes…and you just jump.
Afraid of success?
The biggest fear that can stop you from starting your own business teaching guitar is probably the fear of FAILURE. Maybe you’re afraid that you won’t get enough students to make a living, or that things will some how blow up in your face. In my case, I found out that my real fear was the fear of SUCCESS! Starting your own business is no big deal if you get someone who knows how to do it to help you…what tends to scare me is how to SUSTAIN it once things start rolling:
- Once you get 50 students, how do you keep them from quitting?
- How do you make sure they get the results they’re looking for?
- What if you can’t handle the pressure of their expectations?
We tend to create these unrealistic “doomsday” scenarios in our minds…they ramp up those feelings of fear and that can often paralyze us and keep us from moving forward.
A solution for fear
The truth is most of the things we’re afraid of USUALLY NEVER HAPPEN! I read a really cool quote once that illustrates the reality of fear:
Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered…and no one was there!
I just found out about this 18-minute YouTube video by Jonathan Fields that really inspired me. Take a few minutes and watch it right now. Jonathan explains the reasons why we tend to let fear STOP us, and how there’s really nothing to be afraid of at all:
Jonathan also wrote a book that was just released called “Uncertainty – Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance“…I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but it’s at the top of my list. It comes very highly recommended…if you struggle with fear in your teaching business (or in your personal life), you should check it out.
So, don’t let fear keep you from starting or expanding your teaching business…or from seeing the success you deserve in your life. Feel the fear…acknowledge it (after all, it’s just a feeling)…and then just jump!
Now it’s time to hear from you. Have you been experiencing fear in any area of your teaching business? How do you deal with it? Let’s talk about it in the comments below!
