Three Effective Ways to Find the Courage to Keep Going

Let’s say you’ve been working really, really hard on a project. In order to get it done, you’ve invested every spare second, you’ve saved every penny, you’ve learned  a ton of new skills, you’ve relocated your comfort zone to a brand new area and you’re actually starting to like the new neighbourhood. And now, you’ve taken the final turn on the road.
There it is: the goal you’ve been trying to reach. Alarmingly close, just a few more steps! And you freeze.

Sounds familiar?
I totally feel ya. Now let’s see if there are some tricks to uplift the vibe.

1. Know that it is absolutely okay to be scared…and remember you’ve successfully faced your fears before
Remember younger you at the beginning of your project? How innocently ignorant and full of hope you were. Now be very honest with yourself: would present you trade places with younger you? Most likely not, because you recognize how badass you are for overcoming all the challenges so far. You looked your insecurities right in the eye and you slayed them! Now there’s a new obstacle and you can overcome it again. It’s what you’ve been doing ever since you were a baby, when everything was unknown. You just didn’t realize you were supposed to feel fearful.
So, recognize you’re afraid. Give yourself a mental hug and remember you can handle this. After all, you did it before and you lived to tell the tale. Now bite it down in manageable chunks and take the first step. You can do this.

2. Understand you might feel fear of failure…and remember that failure is a necessary tool to reach success
Winston Churchill had this awesome saying: “Success is stumbling from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”
Kind of brings a smile to your face, right? In our society, it’s natural to want to do things right and perfect. It’s less tiring and more fun when things go smoothly. It also protects your ego in a way. But growth isn’t found in things done perfectly the first time. Most of us don’t remember how many times we’ve fallen down before we could walk. But we decided that we wanted to walk, so we tried and tried and tried again. Until we could take those steps without falling flat on the face. Victory! And then we decided we wanted to run and the whole cycle restarted.
It’s not the instant success that teaches us the right way, it’s every failure. So keep your eye on the goal, honor your successes and celebrate your failures even more: they showed you the way to overcome an obstacle properly and shaped you into the skilled human being you are today.

3. Recognize the power of your imagination…and member you can always flip the switch
In my case, reaching my goal means I’m about to leave my country and my family for the first time in my life. And it’ll be for ten months straight, on the other side of the ocean in a different time zone. That’s damn scary. When booking my flights I was almost in tears: ‘What the hell am I doing?! Why did I ever think this was a good idea?!’ Total overwhelm of fear.
So I dwelled in it for a while, after which I took a deep breath and tried to flip the switch. I changed the perception of my current situation from what I would have to give up to what I will gain from this experience. I can assure you, I felt a whole lot better instantly. Our minds are professionals in making up doom scenarios and apocalyptic storylines, but the thing is: 95 to 99 percent of those stories won’t ever become true. They just enforce a negative vibe around something that should be the opposite. Fortunately, we can do the exact same thing to create a positive vibe, by imagining wonderful opportunities and exciting experiences. Don’t underestimate the power of your mind. You might as well use it to your advantage.

Feeling better yet? I hope so. Feel free to leave any tips of your own in the comments below. And remember: you really, truly can do this!

Much love

Nathalie