7 Tips to Transform Anxiety & Fear into Strategic Growth

What crazy times these are!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling a little ungrounded these past few days. It’s a bit unsettling when the “norm” of our lives (food, work, family, friends, health) are teetering on uncertainty and potential risk.

During unprecedented times like this, people are more fearful than ever about their futures.

As a strategy coach, my business thrives when I’m successfully helping my clients increase their sense of clarity, direction, confidence, and productivity in all areas of their personal and professional lives.

In anticipation of the chaos potential, I’ve developed seven tips to transform the negativity of this situation into opportunities for growth, progress, and achievement. I hope these strategies help you stay positive, feel more supported, and proceed strategically to a more prosperous future.

1. Focus on Having a Positive & Empowered Mindset
In the history of our country, there have been numerous examples of how people have overcome even the highest of odds to prevail. I have one client who shared her story of losing 300 pounds to become a health-centered fitness coach. Another client beat stage 4 breast cancer and is now cancer-free and happy. While yet another overcame six-figures of debt to become debt-free and highly philanthropic. Did they throw themselves a pity-party? Well, maybe. But eventually, they put on a happy face, marched forward, and won whatever battle they were facing. The moment you let doubt creep into your mind and STAY, you give it power, and you lose yours.
ACTION STEP: Banish any fears you have by creating an affirmation document where you write out your ideal outcomes in detail and then read and recite them several times every day. Have this become a routine part of your life by incorporating frequent updates and more significant outcomes.

2. Focus First on Your Friends & Family
Every uncertain thought or negative emotion you’ve had has undoubtedly also flashed through the minds of your family members and friends.
ACTION STEP: Take time to put yourself in their shoes. Reach out to them and see if they want someone to talk to about their feelings. Do your best to be a source of confidence and stability for them so that they can feel a bit more secure.

3. Focus on New Ways to Add Value to Your Current Clients
In addition to finding new ways for your business to navigate through challenges, keep your eyes open for ways your clients can navigate into more calm waters alongside you. Think of them as your business partner. Ships sailing together through treacherous storms. If one boat sinks, you all sink. Yet, when they rise, you rise higher because of them.
ACTION STEP: Think of what may be keeping them up at night, and then offer them support. If you find a great article, share it with them. If you see a great motivational quote, forward it their way. I spent this morning making a list of each of my clients, along with a new strategy for them to leverage new online activities. Each one of them is unique, fresh, and may possibly provide them with a brand new and better outcome.

4. Focus on Fighting Isolation.
Fear can drive people into isolation, unproductiveness, and loneliness. The best strategy to avoid this is to be more socially active. However, that may be hard when we’re under advisement to stay home. Take this time to try different ways to connect with others.
ACTION STEP: A few possibilities would be to attend a virtual networking event, schedule more online coffee-connects, host a coaching-call marathon, or run a 5-day online group challenge. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Even if it doesn’t become the next best ‘hit”, you’ll still be developing deeper relationships with other people who are trying to fight isolation as well.

5. Focus on Your Next Story and Forget About the “Past”
Many people define themselves from past failures, never recognizing the untapped potential they are never able to embrace. One of the most significant benefits my clients receive by publishing their stories in one of our books is that they become instantly free to write the next story of their life. Sometimes our past becomes our biggest enemy and acts like a captor of our progress.
ACTION STEP: Take time to write a one-page story about every ten-years of your life, highlighting the good and the bad for each decade.

6. Focus on the Gratitude and Forget about the Problem
Even the most significant problems can become lesser if we choose to focus on gratitude. Do we complain about the challenge, or do we find something good to be grateful for? When things turn negative, and we complain, we attract negative thoughts, energy, people, and more negative results. When we focus on gratitude, we are opening up the opportunity for better thinking, actions, opportunities, and results.
ACTION STEP: Start a gratitude journal or enter notes in your gratitude journal about this epidemic, highlighting the good things that could possibly come of it like deeper relationships, healthier living, stronger communities, greater awareness, etc.

7. Focus on Your Response to the Event and Minimize the Actual Event
When things go wrong, we tend to feel defeated and become frustrated with our fundamental lack of control. The moment we embrace the fact that we are unable to control events or even other people’s actions about those events, we begin to gain our control back. The real power then comes when we can fully master our response to those events instead of the events themself.
ACTION STEP: What responses can you take from the items you discovered with your gratitude journaling? Choose one and take action.