When your biggest challenge in getting your yoga teacher career started is FEAR – what do you do?

A few weeks ago I received an application form for a strategy call with me, and in answer to one  question on that form which asks, "What's the biggest challenge that you think you're facing right now in terms of trying to get your yoga teacher career off the ground?" this yoga teacher simply wrote, “fear!”

It totally resonated with me – because I know just how she feels! I also know thousands of other would be yoga teachers feel that same sense of fear – and that fear holds them back and sabotages their efforts in dozens of ways, (from how much to charge for their classes to wondering if they’re actually good enough to compete with teachers they believe are “better” than they are).

Allowing that fear to take hold can literally mean the difference between success and failure.

When I saw that application form I just felt compelled to do a Facebook Live for my Facebook community…….but here’s the thing…. I’d never done a Facebook live before, was scared of doing one!!!

There you go!

And I’m a relatively successful yoga teacher, bringing in almost £40k last year teaching no more than 9 classes a week!

You’d think I had the confidence of a pro!

No – doing a Facebook live frightened the heck out of me. Do I feel comfortable in front of the camera? Hell no. I feel very uncomfortable, and I'm looking at myself and I'm thinking I don't look good and my hair's not that brilliant and a hundred other negative thoughts, but you know what? Who cares, because actually if you've got something to offer that you think might help someone else, who cares what you look like?

So I went ahead anyway – and did the Facebook live.

The student was really grateful.  She said it inspired her. The video got good reviews.

Job done.

What’s the message here?

It's okay to feel fear, because the truth is, every single time you step out of your normal routine to do something you've never done before, fear is what you're gonna feel.

Every step you take on the journey towards becoming a yoga teacher is going to take you into a place you've never been before and you're going to feel a little bit uncomfortable. But here’s the thing. You're a yogi. You spend a lot of time on the mat. And when you go onto the mat, you move yourself into positions that maybe you've never tried before.  You learn how to sit with discomfort when sometimes a pose is maybe challenging you a little bit but you learn to sit with that sense of discomfort. You take warrior position and you feel the strength and you carry that strength off the mat as well as on the mat.

If you're a yoga teacher, you need to be able to take that same strength and resilience that you learn on the mat into doing the things that you want to do when you're off the mat…..

and that includes developing and building your own career.

You know there is an anagram of FEAR I learned.

Forget everything and run.

Or

Face everything and rise.

And when I was looking at that application form from this particular applicant, I realised if she wasn’t careful she might let her fear make her do part one - forget everything and run. I didn’t want that for her

So my question to her – and to you if you feel fear is this:

"What's the consequence if you let that fear stop you from even getting started?"

In some cases, that's what people do. They procrastinate and they put off from even taking the first step because in their head, they're scared stiff of things that might be way down the line.

So, are you going to forget everything and run just because something in your head, some little gremlin is saying, "Oh, you know what? I'm not sure about this. I feel a bit uncomfortable. What if?" And the all the gremlins start coming up?

You have a choice. Which one are you going take?

If you allow that fear to stop you from going out and teaching, how many prospective students are missing out on the opportunity of being taught by you?

And here’s the other thing that I just think is such a shame. We spend so much money on our own learning. We spend thousands going on the teacher training courses, getting our qualifications, and then we do nothing with them. How many prospective students are losing out?

If you find fear is holding you back from getting yourself out there I want you to really think about this and say, "How many students are not being helped because I am letting fear stop me from making a start?"

So, just try asking yourself, what's the next one step that you need to take?

Know that you can do it, but you might have to be a little bit smarter than doing what you did.

If you can tweak a few things, if you can start to just put one foot in front of the other each time you move out of your comfort zone, you'll start getting more comfortable, then you'll move to the next step and you start getting more comfortable. That's how you grow. That's how you move forward. That's how you're going to make this work.

The truth is – we  ALL feel fear every time we step into something new.

I hope that the next time YOU feel that fear, that you won't let that fear stop you.

Face everything – and rise!

Good luck! Now go take action!   

Namaste,

Shona

Your action step:

We might be able to help you!

Seriously – trying to build any kind of business or career is so much harder on your own. Find someone – even if it’s not me – who can help you move forward. Who believes in you and who has the skills you might lack right now to see the best way forward.

Till the next time

Namaste,

Shona