TLDR:
- Understand all the common mental barriers faced
- Establish a growth mindset, realize that your abilities and intelligence are not linear, but can be developed with the proper discipline
- You can’t have a mansion built overnight. Take it one step at a time.
- Identify and acknowledge the specific fears you face the most, and learn how to overcome them
- You’ll probably feel what you’ve accomplished pales in comparison to whoever you compare yourself to. Even Neil Armstrong feels the same.
You will do it. Here’s how
In anything you pursue, there will be ups and downs, and there can be no better example than building your own business.
One of the major downs is overcoming the mental blocks you have in your mind, which you’re convinced you’ll never be able to overcome.
American sociologist Robert K. Merton would say that you’re heading towards self-fulfilling prophecy territory, a concept where what you think will happen ends up happening.
And we’ll be dissecting a few of those barriers in this article and how to ensure you don’t end up fulfilling those prophecies.
1. Understanding Mental Barriers
Firstly, let us briefly dive into a few of the most common mental barriers all people face that are also applicable to building a business:
- A fear of failure that paralyzes your decision-making and ability to take risks
- Not willing to go outside of your comfort zone and experiment
- Doubting your abilities and self-confidence in what you can achieve
- Striving for perfectionism in each and every aspect you can think of the things you do
- An aversion to experiencing setbacks, hindering your ability to learn from failure and mistakes
- Believing that your talents and intelligence are fixed
We’ve all experienced most of these barriers at some point in life, and if you’re an entrepreneur currently in the same boat, you’re more than likely experiencing a few of them simultaneously.
So how can we overcome them?
2. The Growth Mindset
Coined by American psychologist Carol Dweck, a growth mindset is a concept emphasizing that your abilities and intelligence are not linear, but can be developed through dedication and hard work. Such a mindset can be developed with exercises like:
- Embracing challenges that come your way
- Seeing failures as stepping stones for the ultimate end goal you have in mind
- Learning from any constructive criticism you receive
Fostering a growth mindset can help turn your mental barriers to catalysts for not only exponential business growth, but also exponential growth of you at a personal level.
3. Setting Realistic Goals and Expectations
Though the sky certainly is the limit for what can be achieved with your business, take it one step at a time, for setting farfetched expectations can easily lead to frustration and disappointment that make you relapse and experience mental barriers once again.
It’s far more ideal to set achievable goals that are one step in the ladder you’re climbing, by doing things like:
- Adopting the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)
- Diving your long-term and ultimate end goals to smaller, digestible milestones to make the path you’re traversing not as daunting
- Acknowledging and celebrating all the achievements along the way irrespective of size
So if you’re looking to start a YouTube channel for example, a SMART goal you could set is to achieve X number of subscribers within 6 months.
4. Managing Fear
Fear is a theme in essentially all mental barriers experienced. What you can do to overcome it is:
- Identifying and acknowledging specific fears
- Conducting a rational risk assessment, identifying potential risks and how they can be mitigated
- Taking action even in the face of fear
5. Imposter Syndrome
Odds are that you may have not only experienced this, but also deal with imposter syndrome on a frequent basis, and I am one of those people.
Ever since I’ve tried creating things on the side in my free time, I’ve constantly doubted whether or not I even have the right to create something in this space, my intellect, and if I really have what it takes.
And yet, I found myself having the audacity to continue building something in this space, without consciously realizing it.
A few days ago, I was listening to a video by David Perell with Sam Parr titled “How To Write Your Way To Millions of Dollars and Subscribers.” There was a very brief segment on Imposter Syndrome and they talked about how even Neil Armstrong says he experiences this when comparing himself to very established businessmen. It really took me by surprise and made me deeply think about how even someone like him could possibly be experiencing Imposter Syndrome, and what must have kept him going, and I reached the conclusion that it must have been something along the lines of doing something he truly loves, had the perfect companions on his journey, and a mentor that aligned with his views on life and what he wanted to do that took him under his wing.
At the end of the day, if the business you’re building is something you truly love, with the proper support and vision, it won’t be hard to imagine yourself being able to accomplish what you’ve set out for, regardless of how often you face mental barriers.