How To Overcome Fear And Self Doubt To Make More Money
Are you holding yourself back from making more money because of fear and self-doubt?
If so, you’re not alone.
Many people struggle with these emotions, and they can be powerful barriers to achieving financial success.
You can use some practical strategies to overcome your fear and self-doubt so you can start making more money.
Understand the root of your fear and self-doubt
First, you need to understand where these emotions come from.
It’s your Lizard Brain sabotaging you. That’s the dumb and reactive part of your brain that takes over when you’re feeling stressed.
Your overactive Lizard Brain will cause your thinking to become distorted — making things seem bigger and worse than they really are.
And your Lizard Brain — it’s really called your Amygdala — causes your fear and self-doubt.
Your Lizard Brain is the oldest and most primitive part of your brain — storing things such as your past experiences, “old recordings” of negative self-talk, and times of peer pressure. It’s full of your fears and insecurities.
You can do some things to quiet your Lizard Brain and transform your negative self talk and calm your fears.
Take some time to reflect on the root of your fear and self-doubt, and try to identify the specific thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back. You can challenge those thoughts with evidence and change your self talk to more positive thinking and motivation.
Challenge your limiting beliefs
Once you’ve identified the thoughts and beliefs that are causing your fear and self-doubt, it’s time to challenge them.
Ask yourself if these beliefs are really true, or if they’re simply limiting beliefs that you’ve internalized over time.
Tame that Lizard!
For example, if you believe that you’re not good enough to make more money — challenge that belief by asking yourself for evidence to support it. More often than not, you’ll find that your limiting beliefs are not based in reality.
Then, you can transform your limited beliefs into a growth mindset and make more money:
- Recognize and challenge your fixed beliefs. The first step to changing a fixed mindset is to become aware of it. Identify the areas of business and making money in which you hold fixed beliefs — and start questioning their validity. Ask yourself if they’re really true or if they’re distorted thoughts just holding you back.
- Embrace challenges. You need to stare down your challenges and let them know who’s boss! Instead of avoiding challenges, embrace them! Challenge yourself to learn new things about making money and take on tasks that you find difficult. This will help you develop a growth mindset by expanding your comfort zone and showing you that you’re more capable of making bank than you previously thought.
- Celebrate mistakes. Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process, and they provide valuable opportunities for growth and making more money. Instead of dwelling on your mistakes, celebrate them as a sign that you’re making progress and learning new things. The payoff is coming!
- Use positive self-talk. Pay attention to the way you talk to yourself. Take the emotion out of making money. Replace negative self-talk with positive affirmations that encourage growth and progress. For example, instead of saying “I can’t do this,” say “With learning and hard work I can get there.”
- Surround yourself with growth-oriented and successful money-making people. Seek out people who have a growth mindset and who will support and encourage you on your journey. This will help you stay motivated and inspired as you work to develop your own growth mindset and get focused and motivated to make more money.
By adopting a growth mindset, you’ll open yourself up to new opportunities and possibilities, and you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges of earning what you deserve.
Take action despite fear and self-doubt
One of the most effective ways to overcome fear and self-doubt is to take action despite these emotions.
This can be challenging, but it’s important to remember that your fear and self-doubt are not necessarily indicators of reality.
Most times, your Lizard Brain is lying and deceiving you. It causes your thoughts to magnify and catastrophize — which then prevents you from making logical money-making decisions.
Just doing something can quiet the Lizard.
Taking action shifts both your subconscious and conscious thinking to a different part of your brain and begins to overcome your fear and self doubt.
You can take action even if you don’t feel confident or certain. In fact, taking action can help build confidence and reduce self-doubt over time.
Focus on small wins — to get your brain more focused and motivated and build your self confidence and self esteem.
Practice self-compassion
When you’re stressed and struggling with fear and self-doubt, it’s easy to beat up on yourself.
Your self talk can become relentless — criticizing you mercilessly.
That’s your Lizard Brain torturing you again!
However, practicing self-compassion can be a powerful tool for overcoming these emotions.
And the Lizard hates when you’re kind and compassionate to yourself.
Treat yourself with kindness and understanding — talk to yourself as you would to a good friend.
Everyone experiences fear and self-doubt at times. Instead of criticizing yourself for your struggles, try to approach them with curiosity and a desire to learn and grow.
Shifting to self-compassion can be a powerful way to overcome fear and self-doubt when it comes to making more money.
Instead of being critical and hard on yourself, practicing self-compassion involves treating yourself with kindness, understanding, and acceptance, even when you make mistakes or experience setbacks.
This can help you reduce feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety, and increase your feelings of self-worth and confidence. By cultivating a mindset of self-compassion, you can start to overcome fear and self-doubt, and take bold steps towards achieving your financial goals.
Surround yourself with supportive people
Having a supportive network can make a big difference when it comes to overcoming fear and self-doubt.
Surround yourself with people who believe in you and your goals, and who are willing to provide encouragement and support.
Your healthiest relationships are with those who will stick with you through thick and thin. Especially when it comes to making money.
Financial gain and loss will reveal a lot about your relationships — both personal and professional.
When you’re on a journey to make more money — especially in today’s uncertain and volatile economy — you’re going to have good days and not so good days. In fact, it can be much like riding a roller coaster.
Having supportive people around you for both the ups and downs will help you be tenacious and develop the resilience needed to be successful.
And then there’s the arduous task of weeding out the toxic relationships around you.
Avoid people who are negative or unsupportive, as they can reinforce your fear and self-doubt.
Your Lizard Brain loves the negative and pessimistic naysayers around you. Their negative energy feeds the Lizard and causes the rumination of your negative thoughts to magnify and catastrophize.
You can starve the Lizard by setting more personal boundaries and even changing relationships with toxic people.
Build professional relationships
Relationships with other professionals can be incredibly powerful when it comes to making money.
Building strong connections with other money makers can open up new opportunities, provide valuable support and guidance, and help you achieve your financial goals:
- Networking. Building a strong network of professional connections can be a valuable way to learn about new job opportunities, find potential clients or customers, and make important business connections. By attending networking events, joining professional organizations, or simply reaching out to others in your industry, you can start to build relationships that can help you make more money.
- Mentorship. Finding a mentor or coach who can provide guidance, support, and advice can be incredibly valuable when it comes to achieving your financial goals. A mentor can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, set achievable goals, and provide feedback and encouragement along the way.
- Collaborations. Partnering with others to create new products or services, or to pursue joint business ventures, can be a powerful way to expand your reach and increase your earning potential. By leveraging the skills and expertise of others, you can create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
- Referrals. Word-of-mouth referrals can be a powerful way to attract new clients or customers, and can help you build a strong reputation in your industry. By providing excellent service to your existing clients or customers, and building strong relationships with them, you can encourage them to refer others to you.
Overall, building strong relationships can be a valuable way to make more money and achieve your financial goals. By investing time and energy — but not much money — into cultivating relationships with others, you can create a powerful network of support and opportunities that can help you succeed.
Visualize success and money bags all around
Visualization can be a powerful tool for overcoming your fear and self-doubt — and make more money.
Take some time each day to visualize yourself achieving your financial goals, and focus on the positive feelings that come with success.
Your Lizard Brain will be diminished by this positive focus and this will reprogram your mind to focus on possibility, progress and success — rather than fear and self-doubt.
Don’t just visualize a number. Visualize all of the things you’re going to do with the new money that you make. Get specific down to the sights and smells of the item you want to buy or the place you want to go.
The sensory part of visualization involves using your imagination to create vivid mental images that engage all of your senses. When you visualize something, you use your mind’s eye to create a picture or scene in your head, and you can also engage your other senses to make the visualization more realistic and compelling.
Be engaging your senses, you better align your conscious and subconscious thinking to be focused on your goal of making more money.
For example, if you’re visualizing yourself achieving a certain financial goal, you might imagine what it would look like to have that money in your bank account, and also engage your other senses to make the visualization more vivid.
You can imagine the feeling of relief and joy that comes with achieving your goal, the sound of your bank account balance increasing, and even the smell of the money or the room you’re in.
By engaging all of your senses in your visualization, you create a more realistic and compelling mental image, which can help you stay motivated and focused on your goals.
When you can see, hear, feel, and even smell and taste your desired outcome in your mind’s eye, you’re more likely to believe that it’s possible and take action to make it a reality.
Learn from failure
Failure is a natural part of the journey to success, and it’s important to learn from it rather than letting it reinforce your fear and self-doubt.
Your Lizard Brain will store your past failures in a memory file to recall and remind you about whenever you’re challenged or stressed.
But learning from failure is a key aspect of your growth mindset.
You can change the way you think about failure. Instead of seeing failure as a setback or a sign of weakness, you can see it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Failure is a natural part of the learning process, and it provides valuable feedback and insights that can be used to improve and refine your approach.
When you have a growth mindset and experience failure, you don’t give up or become discouraged.
Instead, you can take a step back and reflect on what went wrong, what you could have done differently, and what you can learn from the experience.
You can use this knowledge to adjust your approach and try again, using you newfound insights to:
- improve your performance
- achieve your goals
- develop resilience
- develop persistence
- have a willingness to take risks
Success is not a straight line — but a series of ups and downs — and each failure is simply a stepping stone on the path to achieving your goals.
When you experience a setback, take some time to reflect on what went wrong, and what you can learn from the experience. Use this knowledge to adjust your approach and try again.
Take care of your physical and mental health
Taking care of your physical and mental health is crucial when it comes to overcoming your fear and self-doubt — and making more money.
Research has shown that there is a strong connection between your gut health and your emotional wellbeing — including feelings of fear and self-doubt.
Your Gut Brain is often referred to as your “second brain,” and is home to trillions of bacteria that play a critical role in your overall health and wellbeing.
When our gut health is compromised, it can lead to inflammation, imbalances in our gut microbiome, and disruptions in the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.
These disruptions unleash your Lizard Brain and can contribute to feelings of anxiety, depression, and self-doubt.
When your gut health is strong, it can support the production of neurotransmitters that promote feelings of calm, connectedness, and confidence — just what you need to make more money.
It can also help regulate your stress response and reduce inflammation, which can help us manage our emotions more effectively.
Once you take the emotion out of your journey of making money, you become much focused and motivated.
By supporting your gut health, you can improve your ability to think clearly, make decisions, and overcome you self-doubt.
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep, eating well — including focus on gut-friendly prebiotics and probiotics — and engaging in regular exercise.
You may also want to consider practicing mindfulness or meditation, as these practices can help you stay grounded and present in the moment, and reduce feelings of anxiety or overwhelm.
Celebrate your successes
Finally, it’s important to celebrate your successes along the way — even the small wins.
When you achieve a financial goal or overcome a fear or self-doubt to make a bold financial move, take some time to celebrate and acknowledge your progress.
This can help build your confidence and motivation, and reinforce the belief that you’re capable of achieving your financial goals.
Overcoming fear and self-doubt is not always easy, but it’s an essential step in achieving financial success.
Building financial success is a journey, and it’s normal to experience fear and self-doubt along the way.
With patience, persistence, and a willingness to learn and grow, you can achieve your financial goals and live the life you desire.
Don’t let your negative thinking hold you back any longer.
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