One of my friends called me yesterday on her lunch-break at work. “I just can’t do it, no-one is going to take me seriously. I have spent the last hour looking through the online shops of people doing the same thing, and they’re WAY better than me”.

Her voice was frantic, dejected, I could tell she’d had enough – that she was edging towards the idea of throwing in the towel on her dream – the dream that is guiding her towards embracing the creativity that bubbles inside her, the dream of offering her art to the world and working for herself.

“It’s just so fucking scary. I’m freaking out”, she said, “I don’t know if I can do this. I think I should just quit”.

I suggested that she stopped for a moment and just breathe. Just breathe. In and out. Big, deep breaths.

I then asked her, “Is there a small step you can take, today, towards your business? A small step that feels less scary for you?”

She replied, “I guess so, yes, I could write some copy for my website, that feels less scary”.

And so she did. After our phone call, she sat down in her favourite coffee shop and wrote the ‘About Me’ page for her new website.

She then emailed it to me. I read through it last night. She’d nailed it. I smiled. She was back in the game.

 

One of the women in my beginners running group told me that she struggles to do her ‘homework’ run, “I’m fine as part of the group, I feel really motivated, but the minute I’m on my own, I just can’t get my shit together and go out and run. I end up doing nothing”.

I asked her, “Is there a small step that you can take, towards your homework goal? A small step that feels less scary for you?”

She replied, “I have no idea, I just get freaked out, I think about the 30 minutes I have to go out for, and it just seems such a long time. I just can’t make myself do it”.

I suggested that instead of 30 minutes, she sets herself the goal of going out for 5 minutes. “5 minutes, that’s it. That’s all you have to do. If after 5 minutes, you’re still feeling demotivated, it’s ok to turn around and go back home”.

“Serious?”

“Yup, I’m serious”, I replied, “5 minutes. That’s it”.

She smiled. I smiled. She was back in the game.

 

My question to YOU:

Is there a small step you can take, today, towards your goal? A small step that feels less scary for you?