What do you do when life offers you something that make you go WTF?

We all have hopes and dreams. Expectations around how we’d like to journey through life.

But Life doesn’t always get the memo, Right? Things go wrong. Unexpected changes happen when you thought you were heading down cool, calm and collected avenue. And that’s when fear steps in.

For some of you, it may seem surprising as I come across as if I’ve got all my shit together, but, I’ve been down fear street more than I can remember.

My family sold up everything to move from South Africa to Australia based on bright promises. Only, my husband at the time was made redundant after we got here.

Twice.

• Suddenly, newly arrived, we went from one income to none.
• We had three children under the age of 5, had no support or even centrelink.

 

In fact our first year here I had continuous blisters on my hands and finger from handwashing clothes, towels and linen as we didn’t have a washing machine.

I had no choice but to start a business with no marketing experience, additional money and in a saturated industry.

Fear loomed over us like a black cloud. I had to choose what to do with that fear.

But fear doesn’t only come with things we can’t control.

It can be about something new you need to do.

• Having awkward conversations.
• Taking a new direction in a life or business
• Doing crazy thing you’ve always wanted to do but never had the guts to.

 

? Diving with sharks or manta rays

? Climbing Lions Head or running Mt warning

? Camping in hailstorms or cyclones

? Downhill skiing on your first day on skis

Its about Saying yes and figuring it out along the way. You muster up courage, even though fear weakens your knees.

 

What do you do with the things that make you want to crawl up and hide? (or spend the day in bed watching Netflix with a bottle of wine and box of chocolates)

 

I want to encourage you today with this: you have more capacity than you think you have, to rise above your fears.

 

Not only that, but when you learn to walk through fear, you’ll find new strength and opportunity on the other side.

 

I’m going to let you in on the way I do that, and how you can too.

 

I break up the word ‘FEAR’ and turn it into a reminder that a better ‘me’ is just around the corner:

Face

Everything

And

Rise

The F is for ‘Face’.

Face the scary things as they come. Look right at them, don’t turn away and focus on what you want. You know the things I’m talking about:

Like in business people often fear success and making money coming at them hard and fast.

If we don’t confront the tough things, we miss out on potentially amazing opportunities or successes on the other side, and this is where fear is resolved.

When I competed in triathlons in South Africa, there was one National Championship race where the rain was beating down so hard and the weather was horrendous. The wind was so bad bicycles were riding sideways. The croc infested river was brown and murkey and the run path was a mud pit. I decided to JUST DO IT. No not sponsored by nike – although funny story. I rode GIANT and my now partner is with GIANT.

That day, I placed third in South Africa. Not because I was one of the best three athletes in the country, but because the top athletes had decided not to ride that day. Before that I had only placed top 3 in my state. Not only did I place, but it got me a ticket to compete in the World Championships in New Zealand, which was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I still cherish today. I would have missed out on all those life-giving experiences if I had decided to let fear hold me down that rainy day. I would have never placed 80^th in the world in internationals.

Next – the E: Everything.

Fear is never far away. Fear will step into everything new you try, everything you love, everything you hope for.

If we don’t see and acknowledge the fear, we’ll be freaked out by the rollercoaster ride of emotions it takes us on. And here’s the secret: the sooner you see that fear is an everyday part of the human experience, the sooner you’ll get used to the rollercoaster ride and start to get excited by it.

Expecting and seeing the fear means we can calmly say, “Here it comes again. It’s going to be a tough time, but I’ll face it and rise from it.” It’s a change of perspective from seeing fear as something that has permission to stop us, to seeing it as a chance to develop you as a person.

Its possible to look at fear with anticipation, knowing there’s something better to come. 

A – and Now the A. Face Everything And.

And what are you going to do about it?

You choose how you’re going to respond to fear rather than react.

My partner and I once decided to tick something off our bucket list. We both would need to face our fear of heights when we booked a hot air balloon ride.

We chose to embrace it as an exciting challenge. We watched videos of all types of people enjoying hot air balloon rides, and thought “you know what, we can do it to”

But when we invited some others along, they had a very different response. They watched and sent us horrifying videos of hot air balloon crashes and said “No thanks!”

So what do you do when you face fear?

Fear still makes me cry sometimes. Sometimes I have a tantrum when things go south.

But I give myself 10 minutes to feel the feels and then I have to ask myself the question, ‘And what are you going to do about it, Chantal?’ That’s when I put my big girl panties back on.

We can choose a positive attitude and empower ourselves to be ready for what’s coming, or we can choose the negative approach of creating drama as we wrap ourselves in the fear.

One option makes us more fearful. The other opens a door to learn and grow from a new experience.

Which brings me to R – Rise.

Face Everything and Rise.

Fear comes from the unfamiliar, the ’not knowing’, the uncertainty .

When we’re not confident about moving forward, fear taunts us.

When we know something could defeat us, it’s scary to step into it.

But that’s also exactly where opportunity lies.

The opportunity to rise above dead ends or roadblocks.

How exactly? I recommend this:

Look after yourself and empower yourself to stay focussed.

When we take care of our emotional and mental wellbeing, fear has far less room to move and gain a foothold.
Those who know me, know I surround myself with something I call the anti-dickhead bubble. No dickhead thinking or dickheads are allowed inside this bubble. Inside is what I value, my purpose, happiness and joy.

I work on making this bubble of focus so strong, that when drama or chaos comes at me, it bounces off because it can’t get through. I leave outside the bubble things or people that don’t serve me.

We empower ourselves by having a clear vision of where we’re going, believing in that goal and dreaming about where it’s going to take us. When we build that inner strength and clarity of focus, fear gets left behind. In fact my now teen daughter have dickhead bubbles which serve them to and is also beneficial for those who spend time on social media.

Conclusion:

My aim, like yours should be, is to live fearlessly.

I might be intimidated when life throws me a curveball and the wtf stare me down, but I never want fear to be the barrier that stops me from achieving my best life possible.

I look back and I’m thankful for my challenging experiences. Those experiences, when failure was not an option, allowed me to tackle fear head on.

I got to know really great people in Australia.

I learned a ton about business and found a new strength in myself.

I gained skills to develop and manage a thriving business.

Now I get to help others do the same, which is what gets me out of bed with a smile every morning.

Because of those scary experiences, I became a stronger, better me.

 

I believe that’s possible for you too.

When you face each thing you think might swallow you up, you have the capacity to face it. You have everything you need within you to acknowledge it and choose an empowered approach. With a clear focus and a well-nurtured inner being, you can walk right through each and every fearful thing.

And when you do, you’ll find that new strength, growth and opportunity are waiting for you on the other side.

Your best ‘you’ will rise up.

---

Book a free strategy call where I will help you smash your fear in the next phase of your business success.