There are so many fears that arise when we launch a new business or begin launching new offers for an existing business.

We wonder:

• do I have what it takes?
• what if I fail?
• how will this launch impact my business and my life?

When those questions arise, it often stops us in our tracks.

If you're working on launching a business or offer, but fear seems to keep paralyzing you, this video is for you.

In this video, we'll discuss:
- how clutter is impacting your launch
- how decluttering will help you shift from fear to faithfulness

The Fears That Overwhelm Our Time

Oftentimes, when we are launching we wonder if we are competent or capable enough to complete this launch.

We may be fearful that we don't have what it takes.

We may be fearful of appearing like a failure.

We may be fearful of how becoming an entrepreneur or stepping into this entrepreneurial vein is going to impact our lives. What does this mean for my relationships? My friends, my family, my significant other, right?

So as we are attempting to get the business off the ground and share it with people, and finally, open the doors, all of these fears come into play. We start shrinking and taking a step back.

When we find ourselves not taking care of the tasks that need to be completed in order for us to get that launch off the ground, clutter is coming into play.

When I am feeling fearful because I'm not certain that I know enough or that I have what it takes in order to complete my launch -  my time becomes cluttered. Maybe I'm suddenly jumping into work from my nine to five, maybe I'm suddenly jumping into other tasks, maybe I'm taking on opportunities to help other people with other things.

All of this clutter starts to present itself because I am feeling fearful.

A lot of times we think about clutter as something that is a waste.
Clutter is really more of something that we are allowing or creating space for that's not serving us.

So I'm choosing to hold on to a thing, because I feel obligated or I feel like it's expected of me to hold on to something, to do a certain thing, be a certain thing and or act a certain way. That creates this clutter that is crowding out space for me to do and be and have what I need in order to focus on the things that are important to me.

Why do we allow that?

If clutter is hindering us, if clutter is holding us back, if clutter is a reflection of this state of being, why do we hold on to clutter? Oftentimes, it is because we are afraid to walk away from a certain identity.

We find ourselves continuing to do the things that keep us in our comfort zone, rather than doing the things that will move us forward into the identity that we really need to step into.

Spending more time and giving more energy and effort to something that is related to an old identity doesn't actually help us step into where it is that we desire to be. So the more that we live with clutter, the more that we continue to entertain those fears - that fear of not being successful, the fear of not knowing enough, right, or that fear of just the unknown.

How Clutter Feeds the Fear

How can we declutter what is happening today to create space for what you need to step into that identity and actually complete your launch?

I'll give you an example. 

We'll take a look inside our homes since that is something we can all relate to.

So when I first started on my decluttering journey, back in gosh, like 2017, I remember, two rooms being really, really impactful for me it was my closet and my kitchen.

My closet was a big one because at that point in my life, I had put on like a pretty significant amount of weight. I had put on probably like 30, or a little bit more than 30 pounds in the last year, which was totally outside of my comfort zone. I was so uncomfortable at that size and at that time, I was like 179 pounds. For my stature, for my height, the ideal weight is like 120 to 130 pounds. So I was nearly 50 pounds overweight at the highest of what a healthy weight would be for me at my height.

And I felt that. 

That was such a strange place for me to be in because I had never really been like, let's say super on top of my health and wellness.

I didn't have like a routine for physical fitness, I just ate whatever. I didn't really have any care in the world for how I was eating because at that point in my life in my mid 20s, I had a high metabolism. And it was like, hey, if I start to gain weight, I'll just workout for some time and the weight will kind of fall off. I was always on this like yo yo roller coaster kind of setup. By 2017, things started to change. It wasn't so easy for the weight to just fall off and I very much felt outside of my depth very similar to how we might feel sometimes when we're launching a business.

And so as I decluttered that space, I learned so much about what was creating that fear, but also how to move past it and how to let it go.

My closet was not overrun. I don't want you to imagine a space that's like so full that I can't walk into it. It wasn't like that, but I had two trash bags worth of clothes that didn't fit me. Clothes that were literally my, "I can't wait to like get back to this weight clothes" and then I also had clothes I actively wore hanging in my closet even thought they didn't fit me.

There were two big messages that came out of that space.

So I'll start with the clothes that were behind the door.
So like I said, those were clothes that just didn't fit me like, like multiple sizes ago. And like I said, I had always had this experience in my life where if I gained a little weight, I would just do something and then it would kind of fall off. So I felt very out of my depth when it came to just health and wellness as a whole. 

So I was holding on to those clothes, much like I was holding on to that old identity.

I was afraid to let go because to let go of those clothes meant that I had to figure out how to actually take responsibility for my health and wellness.

I wondered:
Can I actually do this?
Do I actually know enough?
Can I get the information?
Am I capable?

The clothes I was actively wearing were also too small, but they were I guess big enough that I could fit into them. I used to go to work and wear a pair of pants to work all day, and come home. Then, when I would take them off, I would literally have a ring all around my stomach because I was wearing one to two sizes too small. I was in this state of fear.

Another thing that I noticed was, there were a lot of clothes hanging in my closet that people had given to me that I knew I was never going to wear. I can picture this one thing that I got, specifically it was like this, this like shawl and it was like red and white and black. And it had this like interesting pattern on it. And it wasn't ugly, there was nothing wrong with it, it just was not me - but I held on to it.

I kept those clothes in my closet because I felt like it was more important to for me to maintain this idea with other people that I was using their stuff or I found it valuable than it was for me to create space for clothes that would actually fit.

So the lesson that I kind of took from that was, you know, basically I was living a life where I it was more important for me to maintain the expectations of other people than to feel comfortable or confident myself. If it means that I have to go against what other people maybe expected or wanted from me, then I wasn't willing to do that.

That was such a huge realization for me because this is not a closet thing, this is about my life. This is about who I'm being this is about how I am showing up in the world.

How does that relate to business?
Those same patterns that I found in my closet were true when it came to my launch.

The way that you clutter, one part of your life is the way that you clutter every part of your life.

When you declutter your closet, you're going to have a better closet, more clothes that feel good to you, a space that feels good, comfortable, authentic, all of that. But, what you are really learning when you declutter, is what is holding you back from stepping into the life that you desire to create, what is holding you back from getting your business launch off the ground.

I always knew that entrepreneurship was something that I was interested in, but I was not groomed to be an entrepreneur.  My dad has been an entrepreneur my whole life. My mom also has a side hustle. I helped her to launch a business, but I was not actually groomed to be an entrepreneur.

What I knew was go to school, get good grades, build up your resume, go to corporate America, kill it in corporate America, stay there until you retire. That was the life that I knew. So as I started thinking about launching my business, like putting my coaching out into the world, leaving my full time job, there were so many fears that came up because again, I had this pattern of like, it is better for me to do what is expected than to do what feels right.

My business felt so right for me and it felt so authentic, but I struggled. It took me so many years to like, muster up the courage to leave, because I was so scared of the idea that I would let people down. I was doing really well, I was making six figures. I was top of my class, when I graduated school, like I was doing really well and I was so afraid to let people down.

I was so afraid of what they may think and I was so scared that my parents would be disappointed that I stalled on doing the things that were going to help me get my launch off the ground. I put the brakes on launching because it was like, whoa, I'm so used to stifling that. Like, whatever it is that I desire, if it conflicts with what is expected, I just push it down and I carried the weight of that decision. At that point in my life, I was physically carrying that weight.

I also had this feeling of like, do I even know what I'm doing? Like, what if I launch this business and is a total failure, I fall flat on my face? What if I can't get my job back? What if I run out of money? 

But originally, when I had planned to launch, I didn't do it because I was so like afraid. And again, that identity of who I have been versus who I needed to be to launch my business, I was caught in between that. And I was living literally living in an environment, whether it was my closet, my kitchen, my bedroom, my whatever, I was literally living in an environment that was that was feeding that fear. I was literally surrounded by that I was surrounded by that in my bedroom. And when I woke up, I was surrounded by that in my closet, when I got dressed for the day, or when I got home at the end of the night and change clothes, I was literally surrounded and reminded of that fear when I was living in that space.

How Decluttering Will Help Overcome The Fear

And so decluttering is so impactful because it clear space, but more importantly, it's clearing out all the things that are a reflection of those fears and a reflection of an old identity that we have to shed in order to step into who we need to be as an entrepreneur.

There is an opportunity for us to declutter, not because our space is overwhelmed, it's because our space is filled with thoughts, ideas, fears that are not serving us in where it is that we are trying to go.

When we are launching a new business, new offer, whatever the case might be we need to align our time.

When we think about time management, I feel like a lot of times, what happens is people are like, "Oh, just do time blocks or have a to do list or do XYZ" but what I've learned is like time management is really about I like that emotion management or managing behavior.

Decluttering is a huge part of that.

If I'm walking into an environment, that is feeding my fears, that is reminding me of these fears that are keeping me from stepping into a new identity, then, in that state of fear, I'm not going to do what needs to be done for the launch.

I'm not going to sit down and like go on go live, right, I'm not going to sit down and write my emails, I'm not going to email this person back, that's helping me to complete my logo or focus on you know, additional action items for the launch.

I might start watching TV, I might just go through social media, I might find ways to be available to other people, I start doing all these things out of fear, right. And so it's like, doesn't matter what was on my to do list, it doesn't necessarily matter that I time blocked my calendar, if I can't learn how to manage that emotional state and create a state of peace or calm.

That is what ultimately stalls the launch.

We need to be in a certain state of mind, in order to use our time the way that we say that we desire to. 

Learn how to improve your time management.

Not sure how to declutter these different aspects of your life?

Join the 'Achieve Any Goal' email community to learn more about our upcoming workshops that will teach you how to use this concept to declutter your time so you can launch and scale the business you want without dropping the ball in your life.

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