What Tim Ferris taught me about overcoming fear.
Have you ever read the book by Tim Ferris: "The four hour work week"?
It caused a sensation when it was first released - and it's certainly worth checking out if you haven't read it. Successful author, entrepeneur and at just about everything he turns his hand to, this guy has a really fascinating approach to what he does which quite clearly makes him so successful.
In a recent interview a couple of things he said really resonated for me. Because when the interviewer asked him what he thought made him so successful he said 2 things:
Tim Ferris said:
"I treat everything I do as an experiment."
"I don't risk anything I'm not prepared to lose."
Whoah!
Simple - but powerful mindset or what?!
Because, once you see something as an "experiment" - something shifts inside.
You know lots of experiments don't work out. (Took Eddison thousands of attempts to make the light bulb for heavens sake - and don't get me onto how man learned to fly!)
It's not only OK for an experiment not to work out - it's kind of expected!
You never start an experiment without having done some research into a specific area - and a theory about what might work - and you ALWAYS realise you're going to have to test things - maybe try a few different approaches, before you make your experiment work.
How would it be if you "experiment" with a few approaches to building your yoga career or business?
Might that seem a less frightening thought?
And it kind of links to the second piece really doesn't it? Because if you're going to experiment, you're oging to need to invest something - time, energy, money - maybe all three - but invest you must.
Deciding up front how much time, energy and money you're prepared to put into a new venture before you start helps you answer the question: "What's the worst that could happen?"
Because YOU set the boundaries.
YOU have control.
But more importantly, somehow, it reduces the fear of failing -
which so often stops us from even starting in the first place.
So - whatever it is you've been thinking of doing with your yoga teaching skills - try seeing it as an "experiment."
Do your research. Set up a theory about what might work - based on good "due diligence" (see my blog on this subject - surely it makes sense to set up the experiment to succeed rather than not work out?!) - and then test your theory out!
Build your yoga career or business - one "experiment" at a time!