i want to begin by sharing our deepest gratitude to all of you for your encouragement & support of our online general store, freckled hen farmhouse. it's been an absolute gift to share this project with you & one that i feel i have been preparing for my entire life. goodness, we are just so grateful for you & we cannot even begin to say thank you enough for an amazing first week!
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dear friends, i want to talk about fear.
i am no stranger to fear. as a creative entrepreneur, i balance fear & faith daily.
fear of failure. fear of messing up. fear of the unknown. fear of no retirement. fear of not being current enough. fear of being inauthentic. fear of being too authentic.
i juggle these fears with my truths, some days putting my faith into action & on the uglier days, allowing my anxieties to dictate the day.
i believe we all struggle with our own unique fears, anxieties & doubts. we believe we aren't good enough spouses, parents, entrepreneurs, friends, humans. we place more value on our shortcomings than our successes. we shrug off the light & focus in on the darkness.
and although i firmly believe fear can cripple just about anyone, i do believe it can have a way of propelling us forward.
last year, with the future of luke's job unstable & the rockiness of potentially depending on just one (self-employed) income to support our family, the fear began to set in. instead of allowing our anxieties to control our future, together we began dreaming up just what we always knew we were made to do.
dear friends, no part of that season was easy. we took on a huge financial risk & chose to fully invest in freckled hen farmhouse during one of the most difficult parts of our story. i'm quite certain luke was on the verge of divorcing me if he heard "i am so scared!" one more time. only kidding. but honestly, that fear pushed us to connect more deeply with one another & dig deeper into the next chapter.
truth be told, not all fear has such a picture-perfect ending & oftentimes our anxieties are not even based in reality, but i think it points to a bigger picture. it proves that we have this really amazing ability to triumph in hardship, make lemonade out of lemons & conquer even our biggest fears.
yes, we will fail. yes, we may lose money. yes, we might just lack security & yes, we won't always be that perfect parent. but we will grow stronger, believe in ourself even more, gain humility & possibly set trail on a brand new - & oftentimes even better - path.
dear friends, don't let your fears convince you that playing it safe is better than risking it all for a more joy-filled life.
tell me your thoughts on fear. let's chat.
love,
natalie
11 comments:
As someone who just quit their job to pursue a creative career I absolutely feel ya! Every day is a conversation with yourself between, "This is fantastic!" and "What the heck do I think I'm doing!" It can be quite exhausting. I recently started meditating for a few minutes a day, just to reset those anxieties, and honestly it feels great! Here's a cheers to your success and one for the amazing husbands who got our backs! Thanks for sharing too, it's nice to know we are all in this together!
Natalie,
I love your courage! Not only to take leaps of faith in your business, but to share your fear and anxiety on your blog! My husband is currently looking for a new job and I can totally relate to your worries! I wonder if I should pull back on the time I spend on our podcast to take a temporary stop-gap job. But not only would I be stalling my dreams (and all of the work that my business partner and I have put into it for 3 years), one of our children has special needs and my ability to work a 9-5 or retail job just isn't feasible. There. I said it. I'm not very public about my personal life. But you've given me the opportunity and space to share. Thank you! And keep going! You do beautiful work!!!
I'm getting ready to submit book proposals to publishers for a hiking memoir I wrote. Talk about fear of rejection and lots of impostor syndrome!
I love how you've transformed your life...keep on going!
Lovely post Natalie! I actually recently decided to "close up shop" over at Dirt and Sun Threads because I found trying to sell a product through IG wasn't bringing me joy. Then I decided to restart my blog, the one I had "before cancer" and for me that was terrifying because on some level I felt (feel?) that if I stop writing on my cancer blog and focus of crafting/cooking/backyard farming - the things that make me happy - I will somehow be willing the cancer back into my life. How's THAT for a completely crazy fear? Basically the fear of doing something that gives me joy. Insane.
Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with your new venture and I can't WAIT until the bitter dishes are back in stock! 😀
it's such a blessing and a grace to be able to confront and feel discomfort in the face of fear, and then later on, learn from it. I recently started my own small private practice (I'm a counselor) and though I am fearful I will never have any clients, I know I will in time, the work (money, time, preparation) I do will have lasting, hopefully positive results.
I love this! I've been dreaming for a while of opening a non-profit organization to provide arts education to children with special needs- but fear of the unknown and fear of failure have just kept it a dream! Thanks for the encouragement.
Thank you very sharing your fears, struggles and anxieties. It's comforting to read the comments as well; it shows how alike and also how different we all are! I've been battling the fear of showing my art online and well as contacting local galleries and businesses to showcase my paintings. I think you just have to believe that the worth is much bigger than the fear. Congrats to you and your husband during this exciting time and thank you for your honesty!
I so needed that today! Yesterday I turned in my two-weeks notice at my full-time job in order to take on a part-time job that will give me more time to spend with my daughter, Ruthie. I'm also planning to explore some more creatively based businesses (probably a bit of Etsy, probably a bit of a photo biz), which I'm really excited about. That doesn't mean there's no fear, though, so this was a great read for me!
Also — I totally want to buy all the things from Freckled Hen Farmhouse. Slowly but surely I'll make a few purchases :-)
Fear can cripple you. I causes you to loose yourself. A good friend told me once that fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. That phrase flipped the switch for me. I began to look at those things that caused me to fear. After a quick examination, I can tell if it is valid or not. Usually, it is not. When I am faced with a real fear, that is when I know to turn to my faith and let God deal with my fear. If you have a dream, an idea or something you are just unsure about, you will never get past that questioning phase if you allow fear to rule. Stick your toe in the water or jump in head first. There are only a few things types of failure that equate sudden death. In most realms, you can recover. Just get good advice and see if anyone else has died from trying! If not, go for it. There is a reason why people say: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! :)
I am knee deep in a walk of faith dream tempered with a whole lot of hard work and I have fear and anxiety but the possibilities of living out my dream far outweigh those negative feelings. Thank you for this post, it was the encouragement I needed today. Best of luck with your new venture it all looks beautiful!
Hi! Amazing and inspiring blog! I blog about living with passion and I would love love love for you to check it out!!
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