Overcoming anxiety for success

Close your eyes and visualize yourself stepping onto the TED stage to deliver your very first talk. Your professional life is about to take a significant turn. Only you didn't remember to bring your pants with you to class. Does your tummy feel a little heavy? Good. What have I done, I wonder, with those same wide-eyed eyes? As soon as the first rush of excitement associated with leaving the 9-to-5 world wears off, every entrepreneur begins to feel a creeping sense of dread.

This terror sets in when we realize we've wandered too far from the salary mothership and feel obliged to return to the salaried womb of our parents' financial security system. Congratulations! Every entrepreneur must take the first step in the process of launching a firm. Despite how much it hurts, you can go through it without any difficulty.

Take a deep breath and realize that you are not required to return to your cubicle. In no way, shape, or form did you leave your work too soon. The source of your concern is not wholly unfounded. Day one of being your own boss is pure bliss, but as the months go by, you'll likely notice your bank account shrinking and your enthusiasm fading into a cool reluctance to take on more responsibilities. You wake up one day and realize that you don't have the financial runway or the tenacity that you had previously believed you possessed. This is quite normal.

The following quote says it all: "Entrepreneurship is spending a few years of your life doing things that most people won't do so that you can spend the rest of your life doing things that most people won't be able to do."

When it comes to quitting their 9-to-5 jobs, most new entrepreneurs are more concerned with the last part than the first. They don't spend much time thinking about what it means to "live like most people won't." "Sure, it'll be difficult, but I'm stronger!" they proclaim.

But are you willing to allow those few difficult years to turn into five or ten years of hardship? The Universe has a funny way of making fun of your expectations. The effort required to bring a new company to profitability must be herculean, day in and day out, for far longer periods of time than you might expect. You can't expect to maintain the same standard of living that you enjoyed while receiving a paycheck every two weeks, can you? Because your part-time consulting job is unlikely to cover all of your expenses, you may need to trim some fat from your household's spending plan. If you want to save money, you might consider canceling your Audible subscription, exercising at home instead of going to a fancy gym, or shopping at a discount supermarket instead of Whole Foods.

We hold successful entrepreneurs in high regard because they appear to possess limitless abilities. By the time we embark on our own entrepreneurial journey, we've already bought into the myth that we can handle everything. That is something we tend to forget about Richard Branson, whose diverse portfolio of businesses includes planes and trains as well as spacecraft, electronics, charities, radio, and so on. He didn't try to do everything at once, at least not at first.

I am trying to build an app and website at the same time while also growing seven social media accounts, hosting webinars, talking to customers, selling, and securing venture capital, while also juggling a personal life? Remove it from consideration.

The word "vacation" does not have to connote a trip to faraway lands: Spend a couple of nights in a secluded Airbnb or take advantage of a staycation. Simply put aside your work and make getting your head back on straight a priority.

Having self-doubt is an unavoidable side-effect of striving to be ever-more awesome, but we have the option of allowing it to cripple us or using it to our advantage. You have the ability to alter the narrative that you are telling yourself about what these fears mean: Have you made a grave error? Is this skepticism a natural emotional reaction to the situation?

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