5 tips on taking action(even when you feel really stuck)

It's normal to feel scared when faced with a challenging situation but taking action despite your fears is an essential skill for personal growth and success. Here are five ways to take action even when you are scared:

1.       Change your lens

Instead of thinking of the worst-case scenario, think of the best.

Don’t focus on the potential negative outcomes, try to focus on the potential benefits of taking action. What positive things could happen if you faced your fears and took action? How would your career change? How would your life change? Remind yourself of these to motivate yourself to take action.

Your perception = your reality

2.       Practice gratitude

• Gratitude promotes positive emotions: When you focus on the things you are grateful for, you are more likely to experience positive emotions helping you to feel more optimistic and hopeful, even when things are challenging.

• Recognize the progress you have made: Even if the work situation is difficult, you may still be making progress towards your goals. Take time to acknowledge and celebrate the progress you have made, even if it is small.

• Chances are, you sought out this new opportunity. Be grateful for it and all the potential rewards it could bring.

3.       Speak Success, See Success

• Check in with how you are speaking to yourself. You will be affirming your thoughts about yourself all the time. Instead of speaking negative, affirm to yourself as if you are the right person for the job

• Take a few minutes to visualize yourself successfully completing the task or overcoming the situation you're scared of. Visualization is a powerful tool that can help you build confidence and motivation to take action, despite your fears. Take a few minutes to visualize yourself successfully completing the task or overcoming the situation you're scared of. Imagine yourself feeling confident, capable, and proud of yourself for taking action. This can help you overcome your fears and take action with more confidence. When you feel different, you’ll do different things.

4.       Break it into tasks & assess

When facing a daunting task or situation, it can be helpful to break it down into smaller, more manageable steps. This makes challenge feel less overwhelming and help you focus on the individual actions you need to take to move forward.

For example, if you're scared of public speaking, you might break down the task into smaller steps like researching your topic, practicing your speech in front of a mirror, and delivering your speech to a small group of friends before presenting to a larger audience.

The do some colour coding on each task:

• Tasks you know how to do: Green

• Tasks you sort of know how to do: Amber

• Tasks you need help with: Red

There will probably be more green than you previously thought. This will take you from a place of overwhelm

5.       Reframe "Failure”

Failure is a necessary step, so fail a lot and fail quickly, to get to success faster. Try to reframe it:

• As a learning opportunity: Each time you fail, you can reflect on what went wrong and identify areas for improvement.

• As a necessary step towards success: it teaches you what doesn't work and helps you to refine your approach.

• As a chance to develop resilience: by learning to bounce back from failures and setbacks, you can become more resilient and better equipped to handle challenges in the future.

• As a way to redefine success: Success is not always about achieving your goals on the first try. Failure can help you to redefine success as a process rather than an outcome, where each failure is a step towards eventual success.

Taking action even when you're scared is essential skill for personal growth and success.

So, the next time you're feeling scared, remember these five strategies and take that first step towards taking action.