Is fear blocking you? How to move forward?

Recently I organised and hosted my first online workshop... Pheew, that was a long road, filled with blocks!

I first started "planning" for this back in May, however life happened and certain parts of me were not feeling ready. Some fears were clearly blocking me from reaching my goal.

The main fear was that nobody shows up. Wouldn't I feel like I had failed? Wouldn't I feel ridiculed? Even if I recorded the session, what would other people watching that workshop think of me, wouldn't they pity me for speaking in front of myself or just a couple of people? Wouldn't they think I'm filled with hubris and delusion? Somehow to me the number of people attending this event was its sole measure of success. Even though I knew I had things to share that could bring value to even one single person...

I adopted a small steps strategy to get there. 

First, getting used to talking in front of an online audience, I did that for a few weeks, starting with 1-2 minutes clips, then 5-10 minutes videos. People watched and liked them, and they perhaps also started getting used to me, and I certainly got used to speaking in front of a camera.

Second, letting go off the idea completely, thinking it was not worth making myself so stressed about it, that it would just flow back when I felt ready. This helped me release any pressure I had. And it did come back a couple of weeks ago, it felt like the natural next step.

Last, it took some reframing. I had always envisioned these workshops would be somehow recurring, but had still been focusing on that first one and got blocked. When I started thinking about them as a monthly event, I started focusing more on the logistics it would take and the topics, and MUCH less about the first event.

Also with my coach we worked on all the value I would gain from the workshop, regardless of the number of attendees, things like gaining practice at public speaking, gaining visibility and legitimacy, having a sample workshop I could share with Women's societies to showcase my work for future collaborations, gaining feedback and testimonies.

And finally things clicked. From there, it took one week to organize and plan, and everything went smoothly. I had made peace with the idea that there would not be many people attending, in the end it was just a first event. So I was prepared mentally to the eventuality only a couple of people attend the live session and was ready to be fully present to bring value to them.

It turned to my surprise that a dozen of people actually showed up in the live session! And many more asked for the recording and told me they were super interested. And later I received massive feedback from attendees telling me how this workshop had helped them concretely.

If I had let fear stop me, I would have never been able to help all these people, and to benefit myself from such experience and exposure. Now I'm looking forward to the next event!

The reason I wanted to acknowledge this experience is because it's universal, and I'm sure not only will it happen to me again, but also it may be happening to you right now, wherever you are in your own journey: feeling like a fraud, fearing the unknown and letting the fear stop you from moving forward.

Let's put things into perspective: it's normal to be afraid, and it's OK to acknowledge it. But then we need to keep moving.

Remember what steps helped me get past this emotion, and remember what happened when I let go of fear and did that uncomfortable thing anyway. 

• Does this resonate with you?
• What would be that meaningful thing you are longing to do but somehow unable to?
• Could fear be stopping you right now from moving forward? What is the worst that could really happen to you? Now what is the best that can happen to you? Would not that be worth taking a risk for? How could you reframe your feelings to move past this fear?
• What would be the smallest step you could do to still move forward?

If this resonates with you and you want some support to unblock your own fears, let's talk! I have created a 1:1 coaching program to help you regain clarity and self-confidence in order to build a self-aligned life. Interested? Book your 60' Free Discovery session here or get in touch with me!