You Can Throw Money At Your Fears But They Won’t Disappear

Have you:

• Ever paid for training you never used?
• Bought books you never read?
• How about coaching you never implemented?
• Got a stack of “shelf” rather than “self” development programmes and books on your shelf?

Unfortunately this is not a rare thing–it’s rumoured that 80% of coaching clients don’t implement what they learn.  I have nothing but compassion for these people because I used to be one of them. I foolishly believed that going on courses was the answer to all my problems.  If I just learnt more my business would soar and clients would be attracted to me.

What I didn’t know at the time was that some deeply ingrained fears and childhood programming was preventing me from implementing what I knew I had to do. It was my  mindset that was holding me back.  It took investing in over 100 programmes to realise this (now that’s a lot of cash! and I don’t want you to have to go through that pain).

Initially, I’d blame the program, other times I’d blame the coach.  They didn’t understand me. My business was different. But the truth of it is that I was afraid to address the inner work I needed to do.  I hoped that throwing money at and buying more resources would make my fears go away, but it never did.  Things only changed when I started facing my fears and doing the inner work.

Here are some ways that we avoid facing the fear:

Throwing Money At Things 

Spending time creating a new website, posting on social media or just hiding out behind your computer will not help you bust through the fears stopping you becoming visible and connecting with others. So often my clients say to me that I’ll just connect with them once my website is complete. I used this strategy very effectively for years – and as some of you will know I had multiple websites to keep me busy – but this never works or helps you attract clients. Only by getting out and speaking to potential prospects can you expect your business to grow.

Throwing Money At People

Coaches and consultants are great and I am never without a coach. They can tell you what’s happening, point out patterns in you that you can’t see and give you clarity around what to do next. However, NONE of them can put a gun to your head and actually make you do the thing that makes you cringe or hide under the table. Eventually, you will have to be doing it by yourself and reconcile with your fears and demons. As I constantly tell my clients, you are 100% responsible for your results-good AND bad.

Throwing Money At Events

If you are not willing to be a different person, to act differently than what you’ve always done, what’s the point of spending money to go to networking or training events to grow your business? Buying a ticket and sitting in a seat doesn’t mean you can tick off the marketing plan ‘to do’ list. Are you trying to give advice, connections and friendliness at strangers? Are you willing to help people who look lost and alone? Do you follow up with every single person you were fortunate enough to meet? If you’re not, just stop throwing money at events in the hopes that they’ll grow your business.

Having well and truly busted myself on this, I really help that I have helped you realise that spending money on things without taking ACTION is NOT going to change your life. The only way things will change is to feel uncomfortable, step out of your comfort zone, feel the fear and take action. In fact my best advice would be to use the fear to fuel your action rather than quash it.