Facing a big life change can feel like standing at the edge of a cliff, wondering whether or not you should jump. Even if you’ve jumped before and you’ve triple-checked your parachute, the fear is often still there. At some point, we all need to learn how to overcome the fear of change… and jump anyway.
Most entrepreneurs I know (myself included) tell ourselves that making big changes—building a new business, starting a blog, switching careers, launching a podcast, writing a book, growing a YouTube channel, or reinventing sluggish routines—will be hard. The truth? Well, it is hard. But maybe it needs to be, perhaps that’s the point.
Still, it’s not the challenge (or the change) itself that causes most of us to stumble, delay, freeze up, or back away from the edge. It’s our anxiety and the internal reaction we feel in the face of this new challenge. This deep-seated fear of change, sometimes formally known as metathesiophobia, is a common human experience. Let me explain:
Change often shows up with a mask of fear. And I find that kind of fear isn’t usually screaming at me in the face, it’s more subtle. It speaks in a quiet, nagging voice…
- I’m too tired today
- I had a long work day
- My inbox is full, I should deal with that
- Maybe I’ll start next week when I have more time
Do any of these thoughts sound familiar?
⚡️ When we put off doing important things that’ll positively impact our future—like beginning to make the changes we seek in our lives—excuses slip in and our goals silently drift away. Fear is the silent killer of your dreams. It doesn’t have to be.⚡️
Fear isn’t always as obvious as crippling anxiety, intense panic, or deep-seated doubt. Sometimes, it’s those tiny, comfortable reasons to do nothing right now. To kick on your favorite tv show instead of work on your business.
If you want to overcome the fear of change and actually see yourself grow, you have to recognize these voices when they appear, call them out, and proactively work with them.
Why We Fear Change (Even When We Really Want it)
Most of us are programmed to avoid discomfort. When we approach something new—a project, a career move, starting a side business—the mind (naturally) jumps into safety mode. It wants to protect us from harm, failure, embarrassment.
This fear stems from our primal brain and its survival instinct that protects us from perceived threats. Not long ago in our evolutionary history, the threats were very real… now? Many of our fears today are either invented or heavily exaggerated. The unknown is a significant trigger here, because our brains prefer predictability.
Here are the types of fear that typically stop us from chasing our dreams today:
- Fear of failure: “What if I mess this up?” This can lead to significant stress and a sense of inadequacy.
- Fear of embarrassment: “What will people think?” The fear of being cringe holds back countless entrepreneurs.
- Fear of the unknown: “I don’t really know what I’m doing.” This uncertainty can feel paralyzing.
- Loss of control: The idea that change might strip us of our autonomy in our lives (routine is a powerful deterrent).
- Past experiences: Negative outcomes from previous attempts at change can reinforce avoidance behaviors.
Fear doesn’t always look like panic. It creeps in as procrastination, self-doubt, and rational excuses. These are all ways the mind tries to keep us “safe” from the risk of change. But being safe and being stuck are often the same thing.
Check out mydeep dive into why more information isn’t always better. Sometimes the ideas about what we don’t know become one more reason to stand still and avoid the change we say we want. While the term tropophobia specifically refers to the fear of moving, it underscores a broader reluctance to step outside our current boundaries.
Understanding Fear: Constructive vs. Destructive
It’s important to differentiate between different types of fear, because not all fear is inherently bad.
- Constructive fear: This type of fear serves as a warning, prompting us to be cautious or prepare properly for something that’s coming. For example, the fear of public speaking might push you to rehearse more thoroughly. It’s a positive signal to pay attention and rise to the occasion. This is the healthy fear we need to seek out and welcome into our lives.
- Destructive fear: This is the paralyzing fear that leads to avoidance and prevents growth. It keeps you trapped in your comfort zone, even when that zone is no longer serving you. This is the fear we aim to overcome and change our relationship with.
Recognizing the difference between these two types of fear is the first step in managing your mindset around change.
Recognizing Fear as a Choice (You’re in Control)
Here’s something that changed my relationship with fear forever… I learned that fear is a choice.
Recognizing this fact helped me break the spell of giving in to fear as often. I’m still human, so I sometimes forget that my fear is a choice, but I now have this truth as an anchor to come back to anytime I want.
Let’s get practical with an activity I’ve designed to help me overcome fear of change in my own life.
Activity: How to Externalize (and Overcome) Your Fear
Instead of letting my fears shrink the size of my goals or hold me back from pursuing something I want, I’ve developed an activity for externalizing my fears—this helps me see from a new perspective, just how silly the fears usually are. Here’s how to do this activity:
- Pause: When you feel a fear, notice yourself hesitating, or avoiding something you say you want to pursue, take a deep breath and pause for a few moments.
- Visualize: Imagine yourself reaching inside your mind and plucking out this fear. Visualize the fear as something you can hold in your hands. Turn it over a few times, inspect it, and observe your fear with kindness.
- Give Words to Your Fear: What exactly is your fear telling you? The fears we hold aren’t often about the world outside and they’re not usually rooted in objective reality—fears typically come from the stories we’re telling ourselves, about ourselves. So, what’s the story of your fear? Example: If you’re avoiding making video content to promote your business, despite knowing it’ll help you achieve your goals, what’s the story of the fear lurking behind the scenes? Maybe it’s something like, “What if nobody likes my videos and I look like an idiot?” or perhaps, “I don’t know what I’m doing and other people already make these kinds of videos, so what’s the point?”
- Write a New Story: When you read that fear story back to yourself, you’ll probably find it sounds ridiculous, overly dramatic, or even flat out untrue. So, let’s write a new story. One we can use to positively drive the growth we seek. Sticking with the video content example above, my new story could sound like, “I have valuable advice to share and it feels good when I do it. Even if it’s not for everyone (unrealistic), sharing my videos will help real people.” or perhaps “Even though I’m not an expert at this video thing, I believe I’m worthy of sharing my thoughts, so I’m going to do it anyway.”
- Create a New Habit: Change comes in the form of small, consistent steps towards our goals. That means building new habits. What’s one small new habit you can experiment with that’ll support the new story you’ve written for yourself? Examples could be: scheduling time to record 2 short videos each week, setting up time with a friend to film a batch of videos once a month, or writing one fewer blog post per week in order to swap in time for one weekly video. Be realistic and start small. You can accomplish more once your skills grow and you accumulate experience at your new thing.
This activity is powerful because you’re naming your fear—which takes away some of its power. That opens up space for something better—curiosity, action, and more faith in what’s possible. If this feels overwhelming, remember that small, daily choices matter most. You don’t have to conquer it all in one go.
Change isn’t usually made in one giant leap and then you’re done forever… it’s the stacking of hundreds of micro-decisions, built upon one other, each giving you a little more confidence and moving you closer to the future you envision for yourself.
Overcome Fear in Small Steps: Tiny Actions, Big Results
The best way to overcome fear of change isn’t to outmuscle it with bravado. It’s to start ridiculously small and keep moving forward. Consistent tiny steps add up.
When I first started my first blog (and making videos on YouTube), I didn’t overhaul my entire life overnight. I set aside a couple hours on three days each week to wake up early and write before going to my day job. That consistent momentum grew into hundreds of posts, relationships, and eventually… a lot of cool business opportunities.
Here’s how to structure small steps that’ll get you closer to your goals every week:
- Set a Micro-Goal: Make sure it’s achievable, realistic, and ladders up to supporting your greater goal(s). This could be 20 minutes of writing, sending 5 pitch emails, or giving yourself 1 hour to make one short video each week.
- Repeat it Often: If daily repetition is too much to start with (or not practical for your goal), decide on a frequency to experiment with and put it on your schedule. Here’s the important part—honor this commitment, don’t easily shirk this new responsibility you just made.
- Forget Perfect: Progress builds momentum, and momentum eventually crowds out fear. Your videos, blog posts, pitch emails, podcast episodes don’t need to be perfect. The only way you’ll get better is by doing the thing consistently, so let’s go.
If your goals are related to blogging or content creation, check out my detailed guide to blog goal setting. Often, the hardest part of creating lasting change is taking the first step and developing a plan for realistic repetition.
Use Fear as a Signal, Not a Stop Sign
What happens when this fear pops up again? (Because it definitely will). Instead of freezing, treat fear like a blinking warning light. It’s saying, “pay attention!” not “turn around.”
Once you’ve recognized the underlying fear, you can cope with this fear of change by:
- Pausing and asking, what am I actually afraid of?
- Putting Words to the Fear: This helps detach from the feeling and see it more clearly through talking or journaling.
- Leaning in, if Only a Little: The growth you seek exists outside your comfort zone, but you got this. I believe in you.
- Regular Wellness Practices: Working some techniques like meditation, breath work, yoga, cold plunging, journaling, or therapy into your daily (or weekly) routine has a long-lasting positive stacking effect that’ll serve to ground you and reduce your baseline level of anxiety. With lower anxiety, fears seem less… well, scary. You can observe them with less attachment, and do the scary thing anyway.
You’re not alone in this, either. Most of us fight the same battles. If you want even more expert tips on shifting your mindset around fear, check out this advice on how to cope with fear of change for even more practical ideas (like journaling and support networks).
Final Takeaway: Fear Helps Drive Your Personal Growth
Change is where growth lives. It’s uncomfortable by design, but that’s how you expand your vision of yourself.
Every time you face down fear and take one meaningful (small) step forward, you come out stronger on the other side. You begin to see what’s possible—with each small decision stacking up to big results over time. It helps to set clear, achievable goals to guide your journey.
It’s not about going it alone or pretending to be fearless. Accept that fear is a natural part of life, then move through it anyway.
If you want to build something—an audience, a business, a portfolio of meaningful work—embrace the truth that your most important work is probably just beyond what feels comfortable right now.
This positive mindset is crucial, because everybody feels fear when facing change. The difference is what you do next. If you treat fear as a nudge rather than a wall, you give yourself a real chance to grow.
- Stack small acts of courage and act in the face of your fears.
- Laugh at your doubts, observe them with kindness, and rewrite your story.
- Let each new step forward show you something you didn’t know about yourself.
Ready to overcome the fear of change? Your future self is waiting. Start today with something tiny—and see where it leads.
What’s one small step you can take right now to begin embracing change? Drop it in the comments below… that’ll make it real👇
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