How to Handle the Fear of the Unknown

What do you do when you’re in the gap — the time in between deciding to go after your dreams and the time when it actually shows up?

Once you make that decision and go all in, there is usually a time delay before you receive or create what it is you want.

How do you handle the fear of the unknown?

How do you navigate that space in between— especially when nothing is happening, or the goal seems so far away, or things happen in the meantime that cause you to doubt everything you were working to accomplish?

There comes a time in this process where we sit down and ask ourselves, “Is this worth it?” And more importantly, “Do I have the FAITH and BELIEF that this is truly going to happen?”

This is the key, as the pursuit of your calling or your dream is not for the faint of heart.

When you receive that big dream, most people think that it is SO big and SO scary… and there’s a FEAR around bringing that into fruition.

Whatever that dream or calling is. It could be a pursuit of a business, making more money, improved health, improved relationships, anything that dramatically increases your quality of life — but that takes time to accomplish.

And doesn’t EVERYTHING worth having take some time and effort to achieve?! 😉

When in pursuit of the THING that will make ALL OTHER THINGS BETTER — a bunch of fear or resistance comes up.

I hear it all the time from women.

There’s a fear around change. They don’t want to sacrifice other areas of their life — they don’t want going after their dream to impede on their time with their kids, affect relationship with their partner, friends, family or anything else they have going on, etc.

There’s a fear around failure. Being in the unknown and not knowing if it’s all going to “work” can cause many women to stop dead in their tracks.

They would rather stay where they are at where it’s “comfortable,” rather than step into the unknown because they are afraid of the failure, the rejection, the judgment if they would in fact fail.

There’s also a fear around success — weird as that may sound, I do hear this a lot. “What would happen if I DO ACTUALLY ACHIEVE THIS?! Then what would happen?”

There could be a follow-on fear, such as ‘what if I can’t sustain it?’ — many women have this feeling like they are waiting for the other shoe to drop, because they just can’t fathom good things happening to them over time, continuing to get better and better. It’s like they expect the worst.

And on and on.

My biggest fears have been around judgment and fear of what other people will think. Because my business relies on my creativity, I fear people judging my work. I still have a fear come up around, “What if I’m just not good enough, or my work is just not good enough, and then I’ll find out I’m a real failure” etc etc.

Do you relate?

The unknown is when the fears come up, and if we’re not careful, can suck us into a deep dark hole of DOUBT, DISBELIEF, and thinking that staying the same is better than the pain of change.

But this is when the most important ingredient comes to play here!!

When you’re going after your dream — when you are working to build a sustainable business and you feel like giving up… when you are working on overcoming an addiction or starting a new healthy habit and you fail yet AGAIN… when you are working on overcoming a health issue and the doctor gives you a bad prognosis… when you are working on your marriage and it feels like a lost cause… these are the crucial moments that DEFINE your future.

Why? Because you CAN choose to quit.

You CAN choose to stop and go back to your old habits, your old ways of thinking and doing, even if it is PAINFUL, at least it is “comfortable” and “safe.”

But that’s just the thing… did you come here to just SETTLE?!

Did you come here to just stick your tail between your legs and accept that nothing is ever going to change for you because it’s just TOO HARD?

NO!!!

You woke up to realize that IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY ANYMORE!!

That what you desire to create— no matter how BIG or how SCARY or how FAR AWAY it feels like it is— is ON ITS WAY TO YOU.

When you’re in the GAP— this is when you MUST HAVE FAITH.

You must have faith and believe that you CAN create your dreams.

You must have faith and believe that what you desire IS POSSIBLE for you.

You must have faith and believe that when you want to give up are precisely those times when you must dig your heels in and keep going.

I believe that FAITH and TRUST are some of the most important elements to achieving your goals.

Without it, nothing matters.

We sit in the fear, self-doubt, procrastination, the wondering… “am I doing the right thing? Should I quit and give up? Will this ever even happen for me? Maybe I’m better off stopping… What if I fail? What if I’m not good enough? What if I don’t deserve this? This is good for other people but not for me..”

ENOUGH!!

You must NOT allow those thoughts to linger in your mind.

You can be in either FEAR or FAITH— but you can’t have both.

The one thing I want you to realize today is that:

Faith is the FOUNDATION to achieving your dreams.

Faith is the bridge that you must walk on when you are in the gap of the unknown.

Faith in what, you might ask?

Faith that God supports you, loves you, and is guiding you along your path.

Faith that God wants you to receive good things.

Faith that what you dream of is possible.

Faith that you can achieve your dreams.

Faith that you will be shown the way as long as you are trusting and taking action.

Faith that everything you need will be given to you along the way.

How do you feel about that? Sounds like a tall order, right?

I will tell you, hands down, FAITH is what has made the biggest difference for me in my life.

Before I overcame my eating disorder, anxiety, PTSD— I had to have FAITH that it was possible for me.

Before I healed from serious health issues— I had to BELIEVE that the treatments I was doing were going to eventually work.

Before I achieved success in my coaching business— I had to TRUST that all of the daily actions I was taking, would one day turn into the business of my dreams.

It truly has been the foundation, the glue that held everything together.

Because without it? I’m lost.

Without it, I get stuck in the doubt, the overwhelm, the over-thinking, and stop myself from taking action.

I dont know about you, but that’s a BAD place for me to be.

What do I do instead?



I choose faith.

I choose to trust myself and trust God.

I choose to keep taking action, even though I am deep in the unknown, not knowing exactly what’s going to happen or even if anything I’m doing is making a difference.

I choose to believe — even sometimes to DELUSIONAL levels — because to me, that is an easier place to be.

I would rather keep on believing than be stuck in a place of fear, anxiety and overwhelm.

Faith has been the thing that has fueled me forward, sometimes for years and years at a time. I have held the faith, cultivated my belief, and used it to fuel each and every baby step I’ve taken to accomplish great things.

How about you? What do you have faith in?

How big is your faith?

Is it deep enough and wide enough to fuel you through the hard times?

If you’re going through something challenging right now, how can you access your own faith, trust and belief that you CAN get through this?

All you have to do is believe.

And gorgeous?

If you can’t believe in yourself right now, I’ll believe in you until you do.

I have faith in you and your dreams.

Know that it IS possible and that you are WORTHY of it.

Keep the faith!!

In love + faith,

xo Lauren