When you decide to build your online business, whether full-time or on the side, you’re going to face a lot of resistance. Internal resistance and external resistance.
It’s normal to feel doubt and fear when you’re taking that leap of faith to pursue your passion and turn it into a business. Especially if you decide to do it full-time.
Entrepreneurship is not easy because you’re constantly taking risks and overcoming challenges. However, if you are a person who loves taking risks and see challenges as a way to keep growing and transforming into a stronger person, then you’re going to love the ride.
Having that freedom to be in full control of your matters is something worth taking a risk for. But, I totally recognize and acknowledge that it’s not easy.
When you’re working at a job for many years, you get used to the monthly income. You don’t get to worry about the money being deposited in your bank account every month. It’s good to have that sense of safety and security (as long as you’re still working in the company).
Many people decide to let go of that sense of security (temporarily) to have more purpose in life. And, I was certainly one of those peoples.
I didn’t enjoy the daily routine of waking up by an alarm, rushing out the door, fighting traffic, sitting on a desk for hours repeating the same tasks I did yesterday, eating my lunch in a break room full alone, rushing back home again, and using the little time left at night to do all the things I was missing out on doing all day long.
My weekends were spent just dreading Mondays. My physical and mental wellbeing suffered because of that.
When I decided to pursue my dream to become a coach online, it was certainly very scary.
In fact, I didn’t share my first website with anyone for months. I was very afraid of what people may think. And I was right. No one really “got it”.
Actually, even now, I still get comments like …”Oh, is that website thing still going?”, or “Is that making you any money”. I’m sure they’re thinking…”Oh, one day she’s gonna grow up and get a job like a responsible adult”.
And you know what’s really crazy and sad…These are the same people who’d spend hours complaining about how much they hate their jobs. And when I ask what they’re doing to change that, I get no answers. Just excuses.
You Are Challenging The Naysayers Reality
You have to understand that the moment you share your dreams and goals with someone if they’re not truly supportive of it, you’re going to challenge their reality.
Especially if this person gave up on their dreams.
They’re going to feel challenged by you. And even scared that you may change and not be the person they are used to. So don’t be surprised if they start to say all kinds of things to change your mind, or bring you down.
This is one of the main reasons I don’t share my dreams and goals with everyone. Only a select group of people I know will support me. So keep that in mind as you start talking about your business plans with random people (or even close family members).
Start Your Business On The Side
If you deeply want to have your own online business but your life circumstances right now don’t allow you to just quit your job, just start your business on the side. You don’t have to quit your job to start an online business.
When I started my first blog, I worked all night on it as soon as I got home. I also woke up at 5 am to work on my programs. And guess how I spent my weekends? … Making new videos for my programs.
Related: How to start a blog from scratch
I was very focused on making it work that I didn’t want to waste an hour doing anything else but work on my online business. It’s amazing how much you can get done by just staying focused.
Just think about it, the average person spends about 2-3 hours a day watching TV. Not to mention the weekend TV shows binge-watching. That’s a minimum of 14 hours a week!
That’s like a part-time job.
Imagine if those hours were used to build a website or any business.
The great thing about starting a business on the side is that you can gain more confidence in it as it supplements your job income. Once it reaches your job income or surpasses it, you can decide then to pursue the business full-time.
But an amazing thing happens too…
Freedom Of Choice
So even if you decide you still want to work at a job, you can switch jobs or even take a short break to look for a better job without losing income. It gives you more freedom of choice. And that’s the key.
Change Your Inner Reality To Change Your External Reality
One of the most important things I did and continue to do as I grow in my entrepreneurial journey is setting goals and change my inner reality to help me achieve them. Here’s what I mean by that.
We’re all conditioned from a very young age with belief systems that shape your external reality. If you believe something to be true, it’ll be true.
To reach your external goals, you have to first become the person that will smoothly accept those goals as their reality (not as a challenging event that’s outside their comfort zone).
So you need to be outside your comfort zone. But not by resisting your comfort zone…you want to stretch your comfort zone internally by changing the existing programming so it reflects a new reality for you. I hope that makes sense.
The best way to do that is by visualizing yourself already achieving your goals and truly feeling the emotions and even the uncomfortable emotions that arise.
These uncomfortable emotions is the resistance trying to keep you safe in your comfort zone.
By visualizing every day and getting used to that image, you start to become less and less resistant to it. And it starts to actually feel like it’s within your comfort zone.
You will no longer feel threatened by your goals. And you’ll look forward to achieving them. And, when you achieve them, it’ll feel completely normal.
Surround Yourself With Successful People
Listen, you can’t expect people who have given up on their dreams and goals to support yours. They may even “fake” their support.
But, the moment your new plans challenge them (for example, missing an event or needing time away to work on your business), they’re going to show a different response.
Make sure you surround yourself with people who are where you want to me.
Entrepreneurs and other online business owners who “get it”. There are many groups online and forums to reach these people. In addition, reading books can also be a great thing.
Just do whatever you can to get close to someone who has what you want. This will also be a motivating factor to keep you going.
The entrepreneurial journey is not easy. But if it was, everyone would do it. There is value in that.
Just remember that in the end, it’ll be all worth it. There is no price for freedom and being in control of your life.
I’ll end this post with my favorite quotes by Jim Rohn…
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan.