UNDERTAKING IN UNCERTAINTY

Accelerate your business with these expert tips on "Entrepreneurship in uncertainty". Analyse and discover this TIP!

Uncertainty, lack of security, confidence or certainty about what is to come, the changes, is totally usual in all our areas, and especially if we embark on the great adventure of entrepreneurship, even more so in the times we are living in post covid, war, monkey virus, near crisis....

Uncertainty and Entrepreneurship are two concepts that go hand in hand, inseparable!!!

If you are an entrepreneur or in the process of becoming one, it is very important that you are aware of the rollercoaster of emotions and questions that will invade you in the different phases of your adventure. (see TIP). If you don't know how to manage this well, you can end up with anxiety, blockages... with the consequent paralysis and abandonment of your project, feelings of inability, frustration and failure.

I am talking about phasesexperience tells me that in the beginning we can be very connected with our purpose, we are very confident that we are going to manage the challenges we face well, we believe we have a clear strategy, but sometimes, as soon as a setback arises, we start to question our worth and we come face to face with the great iceberg of the part of us that we don't even know: fears, entrenched emotions, limiting beliefs, wounds from the past... Success will be closely related to the amount of uncertainty we are able to manage as it arises.

The most frequent doubts that keep us awake at night, in addition to all the doubts of the moment, are those that concern us personally:

• Will I be able to sell my idea?
• Will I convince my clients, investors, relatives...?
• Will this be too big for me?
• Will I be good enough?
• Will I speak fluently in public?
• Will I die of success?
• Will I fail...?

My recommendations so that these types of questions and the consequent feeling of uncertainty do not crush us and prevent us from achieving our dreams are as follows:

1º- KNOW THIS EMOTION, UNCERTAINTY, WELL.

That as all emotions are ours, we construct them ourselves, and they all come with a positive intention and a message. In this case, uncertainty is the emotion in charge of alerting us that there are changes and that we have to do something to adapt, with which it has a positive preventive and adaptive intention to the new situation.

For this reason, our mission is to accept it and live with it.... what's more! embrace it and, of course, not reject it, which is what we try to do because it is uncomfortable because we imagine a threat. The more we reject our fears, the more they subdue us, and the more we embrace them, the more they liberate us. Negative thoughts otherwise become repetitive and invade us in a loop.

2º- TO KNOW OURSELVES

That part of the iceberg we don't know about of each one of us, our needs, values, beliefs, most habitual thoughts (whether they are positive or negative)... In other words, to make the unconscious conscious, as Jung said.

As an example, if you are a person with a high need for control over things in general, if you habitually need to have control over what is happening and will happen, your personal development to be able to adapt to the changes that are everywhere will be aimed at achieving greater flexibility.

ASK

• What does losing control mean to you in general?
• What is the worst thing that can happen in any given situation?

Relativise that fear underneath to make it conscious and take away its power over you. Most of the time we move in automatic mode and decide in a sub-optimal emotional state. When feeling insecure our body responds by generating cortisol, the stress hormone, and other neurotransmitters that do not help us, but only feed back the feeling of uncertainty and lack of self-confidence.

3º- LEARN HOW TO BUILD CONFIDENCE AND TRAIN IT, BECAUSE IT IS POSSIBLE TO

As children we learnt that confidence comes from external achievements, from success and recognition from others. One example is school marks, which rewarded or punished based on results and not on effort, and as a result, we learned that we were good or bad, worth more or less.

In reality the key to confidence lies in the ability to be kind to ourselves, to trust that the capacity to adapt to the unknown is already developed within us, we just need to make it conscious and train it.

The formula "full awareness + attitude of acceptance and vulnerability = less insecurities.

All this... YES!... But... how?

Once we were aware of our own thoughts and emotions, that they were focused on the bad that can happen when we change, aware that our body was in a posture of alertness or paralysis, and aware that the questions we were asking ourselves about our capacity were not the right ones, let go!!!! AND CHANGE FOCUS, LANGUAGE AND PHYSIOLOGY fully.

Our FOCO will now address only to what we can control. No matter how much we face the uncontrollable, we cannot change anything, we accept it and focus our energy and time better on what is in our hands, with some room for manoeuvre. As an example, remember that you are not responsible for the expectations of others, all you need is your own approval.

Focus also on the good of the changes, the opportunities they offer us, to look forward to the surprise of what may come. In this way you will practice the flexibility to embrace uncertainty, be more emotionally balanced and enjoy the whole process. Stop worrying about what can go wrong and start looking forward to what can go right.

As for the LANGUAGE This is what Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP is based on, because emotions are connected to what we believe will guarantee our survival, change the deep-rooted belief of "The unknown is threatening" to "New circumstances will make me grow and develop my capabilities", always change the word "Risk" to "Opportunity", "Impossible" to "Challenging". Avoid "Always", "Never", blunt phrases, anything that implies negative criticism or judgement, and of course, high demands and perfectionism.

ASK YOURSELF:

"What can I learn from this situation, or from this mistake I have made now?" This way you will train in your "solution" mode and not in "problem" mode. Being in apprentice mode relieves us of a lot of pressure to do everything right and under control.

To anchor this new focus and new beliefs you can write it down in various places to remind yourself. It is about breaking the automatisms and doing all this consciously and repeatedly. And last, but not least, the PHYSIOLOGYour body. It is scientifically proven that by changing our posture and breathing we quickly change our emotion, and this is very useful, when we are in this unpleasant feeling of uncertainty and we have to make decisions in our business.

Stand up straight, straight, straight, stick out your chest and back (as a friend of mine says), look slightly upwards, legs slightly apart, arms on hips or upwards, victorious type, forced smile with a pen in your mouth, easier... If on top of that you shout loudly "¡¡¡Cambios a mi!I can do it", "I can do it" and do some anchoring with some shout or gesture of power, I assure you that in 3 minutes, apart from others thinking that you are crazy, you will have an attitude of power from which you will be able to overcome anything and make better decisions.

You may laugh, but this, together with the practice of the sport you like, some of laughter therapy, healthy food, love and... All this generates the happiness hormone quartet that help us a lot: serotonin, endorphin, dopamine and oxytocin. The meditation It also helps a lot to focus on ourselves and not depend on the outside, on the here and now (remember that any setbacks are temporary), on the acceptance of changes without being affected, in lowering the state of alertness and activating the parasympathetic, relaxing the brain waves...

My next article is related to this, how meditation can help those of us who are starting out and exposed to so many uncertainties. Get in touchContact me for more informationis a world of infinite possibilities.

I hope this tip has helped you to shed some more light on the issue of uncertainty in entrepreneurship, as you can see. it's about embracing it and not rejecting it, live with it and undertake with enthusiasm without being certain of what will happen. As you have also seen, we can cultivate and train confidence, with easy and practical exercises.

If you are more interested in the topic you can watch the webinar on Fear in Entrepreneurship that I developed for mentorDay.