More Money: What Is That Big, Obnoxious Thing Standing In the Way?

I’ve been reading an old favorite of mine. My copy of the book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, has that “old book” smell, kind of like leaves crunching under your feet on a brisk fall day. You know the smell.

And it speaks about something very old, and often touted in modern day as a new discovery: how to get what you want.

1. Decide exactly the amount of money you want and write it down… (Okay, I can do that.)

2. Decide what you are willing to do to get it.

Whoa. This one has been buzzing in my head this week because, frankly, I’ve been living in various stages of terror. feardemonright

You see one of the lactase products we’re selling (distributing), Disolact, is finally becoming real. We have our website up and we’ve placed our first order from the Netherlands.

None of that was very frightening until my husband stumbled across a new supplier page on a grocery store site. They have 1,000 stores. We decided to go for it.

Now the terror begins.

As we began looking into product liability insurance ($18,500) and calculating the cost of purchasing the initial product the air seemed to evaporate from our lungs.

Terror.

We have very little in the bank. Our credit sucks. How are we going to do this? worry

Then came the paperwork we had to fill out. Questions we had no idea how to answer. We were going to look like idiots. We were going to fail.

Terror.

But we continue to plog on and even if we don’t get this contract we will surely be the wiser on the other end.

And that’s probably what’s in your way of making more money, of achieving your dream: TERROR!

It is the fear that we will fail, that we will make a fool of ourselves, that we will make such a HUGE mistake that we will never, ever be able to come out from under the bed again.

So, how do we overcome this fear, how do we look the “what’s required to make this happen” in the face and continue to function?

Baby steps. Remember the wonderful movie What About Bob? In it Richard Dreyfus (playing Dr. Leo Marvin) tells Bill Murry (the neurotic, phobic “Bob”) that he can accomplish anything he want s with “baby steps?”

In years gone by psychotherapists used a method called “visualization” to help phobic patients get over their fears. They would go into deep relaxation and imagine themselves driving over a bridge, standing on a high building, riding in an elevator…whatever they were afraid of. The theory was that they would learn to be relaxed when faced with the frightening task or situation.

It didn’t work.

For the most part people visualized until the cows came home and they were still terrified and unable to do what they wanted to do.

What research now shows is that the way to overcome these fears is to just do them…little steps at a time.

“Baby steps to the elevator….baby steps to the elevator…”

This is how I finally got through the terror of filling out all the paperwork: I found a line I could answer and did that, and then another, and then I called someone about another line… until it was finished.

Sometimes the baby steps will take us to someplace we didn’t plan, we didn’t anticipate. But that’s the beauty of life. The unknown. The hidden treasures just around the corner-Just out of view!

NOW HERE’S ONE OF MY FAVORITE TALES:

Maybe So, Maybe Not.
- Ancient Taoist Proverb

One day, a farmer’s horse ran away. His neighbors expressed sympathy, “What terrible luck that you lost your horse!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few days later, the horse returned, leading several wild horses. The neighbors shouted, “Your horse has returned, and brought more with him. What great fortune!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the wild horses and got thrown to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what a calamity!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, conscripting all the able-bodied young men for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son because of his broken leg. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”

Provided by: Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Best of luck. PLEASE SHARE HOW YOU ARE DOING.

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