Chances are, you’re scared of something.

Chances are even better that you don’t even know why you’re scared of that thing. For me, it’s cockroaches. Those little things scare the living piss out of me and I have no clue why!

Fear definitely plays a huge role in launching (or not launching) your idea. It can be the driving force behind why you do what you do when it comes to your business or idea if you let it. It’s certainly not healthy, but it happens.

So what can you do about it? Well….you can feel the fear and do it anyways. But that’s hard. And you and I are both lazy.

So what else can you do?

You can figure out why you have that certain fear and then figure out what you can do about.

That’s what helped me finally launch this blog and it’s helped me keep it going while being employed full-time again.

My fears involved with this blog:

• I wanted to have 6 months worth of unpublished drafts ready before I published the first post because I “didn’t want something to come up” so I wanted to be more “prepared” this time around.

The Solution: My wife told me to grow some balls and just post something to see what happens. So I did and I’ve been on a roll ever since. I can’t let fear stop me from trying something new and you can’t either.

• No one will read it.

The Solution: I realized that people can’t read anything if it’s not even posted, right? I wasn’t even going to give myself the chance! So I posted something and gave people (mainly my followers from a past business on Tumblr) links so they could check it out. Turns out, it worked damn well. I was expecting maybe 5 views the first day but I ended up getting 72! What a boost of confidence that people actually give a shit about what I have to say! (At least I think you do?)

• I’ll run out of ideas.

The Solution: Whenever inspiration struck, I’d write the idea down in my phone or my notebook. I had the brilliant idea of putting most of these ideas in as “drafts” on the blog and I’m up to 96 drafts! I have plenty more that I haven’t transferred over yet so needless to say, I’m stocked up on ideas for a while.

• My ideas suck.

The Solution: Post it anyways and let people decide for themselves if they suck or not. I’m probably my harshest critic so hopefully my ideas will resonate with a lot of other people. That’s all you can hope for as well. I thought my post that appeared on Rockstar Finance wasn’t my best work but someone else thought it was pretty good and the rest is history.

• I have no idea what I was doing. What the fuck is SEO? How do I get a cool template? How do I get 10,000 page views a day?!

The Solution: Embrace the suck. I realized that it’s all about getting and keeping my readers interested and the rest will take care of itself. I also realized that everyone sucks at first but they get better over time by putting in the time and practicing. As long as I improve, that’s all that I can really ask for.

• History will repeat itself and I won’t have any time to work on the blog.

The Solution: Be held accountable. I told my wife about this fear and she said she wouldn’t let it happen. She gives me the time to work on the blog because she knows its important to me. If you don’t have a significant other, tell someone close to you. Make them make you follow through with your idea!

• I’m not doing everything right.

The Solution: Who the fuck cares? I’ll never be perfect. There will always be room for improvement no matter how good I get. I realized this and I’m okay with it now. Just taking action and working on something is more than enough. Breaking things down and not trying to improve on everything all at once has helped a lot.

• I don’t have any extra money to pay for stuff I “need.”

The Solution: I haven’t spent money on anything besides purchasing the domain. A new design, hosting, and everything else can wait. I’ve tried to keep things as simple and as cheap as possible. I need to focus on what’s important and that’s good content. No bullshit. No fluff. No fillers. Just good posts. It’s that simple.

• Any day with less than 50 page views a day was a failure.

The Solution: I realized that any views each day is fucking awesome because my ideas are reaching more and more people. I also realized that things take time and greatness doesn’t happen overnight. I need to be patient but put in the fuckin’ work; no short cuts. I’m not on that level yet where I can expect to constantly get that many views a day and that’s alright; I’ll get there someday as long as I put in the time and produce good posts.

• I have to post something everyday or else people will forget about me.

The Solution: I had to stop thinking that way. I need to write awesome shit so people can’t wait to read what I have to say next….so they want to stick around and keep reading what I have to say. I realized that I shouldn’t write half ass posts to meet some bullshit deadline I place on myself. My readers are just like me: life happens and things come up; some good, some bad so I can’t spend my time and energy worrying about something like that.

• I’ll get burned out.

The Solution: I’ve kept it fun and I’ve tried new things. I’ve taken chances and I’m no longer afraid to “fail.” (It’s not a failure if you’re improving, it’s a failure if you give up.) I didn’t place unnecessary pressure on the blog to “succeed” or hit a certain amount of page views or whatever other bullshit metrics I’d want to place on myself. I don’t want to turn the blog into a job; I already have one of those. I try to write as much as possible but if life gets in the way, then so be it.

• When I reached out to other bloggers, I thought that no one will respond to my inquiries so I was wasting my time.

The Solution: I hit the damn “Send” button and waited to see how things played out. At least I gave myself an opportunity for things to happen. Out of the 6 bloggers I reached out to, 4 responded and 1 turned into an incredible opportunity for a guest post.

• I’m not a writer, how the hell can I turn this into a paid gig?!

The Solution: I realized that no one just decides to be a “writer” one day. They just write and they get better. And eventually they might even get paid for it. I decided to not try to make money by writing right out of the gate, but rather build my “portfolio” so that maybe I can go that route someday. Rather than tell others that I’m a “writer” or “I’m good at writing so they should hire me,” I’ll give them the opportunity to figure out those things on their own. You should do the same with your business or idea.

• I’m employed again, how the fuck can I blog about being self-employed?

The Solution: I realized that nothing worth doing is easy and that I have other responsibilities to tend to which my day job gives me the opportunity to fulfill. There’s no shame in that. The majority of my readers are employed full-time and want to eventually take the plunge into self-employment, so if I can document how I’m getting there and they can learn something from it, then fuck yeah, that’s awesome! Ain’t no shame in my game if that’s the case. If I can avoid being a starving artist, then that’s what I have to do.

• I made a goal to write 500 words a day but holy shit, 500 words is a lot!

The Solution: Just try to write everyday instead. Some days it flows, other days it doesn’t. But as long as I practice, I’ll get better and things will get easier. Progress, no matter how much or little, is all I can ask for. I realized that I did good in some soccer practices when I was growing up and I completely sucked during others; but the fact that I stuck with it was what was most important; that I eventually got better.

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Figure out what you’re scared of when it comes to launching your idea and then figure out what you can do to combat those fears. Be sure to let me know how it goes!

Open to music suggestions to get the juices flowing? Try “Kill Your Heroes” by AWOLNATION.