I hit a major snag this weekend in my art business.  I *finally* bought a new printer to make my own art prints but I can’t seem to match up the color on the screen with the colors that print on the page.  Yikes.

As someone who knows just enough about printing/technical stuff to get by, this can be a dangerous situation.  I don’t totally know what I don’t know, and can majorly screw things up with a few wrong adjustments.

I got on the phone with Epson on Saturday to try to trouble shoot the whole scenario.  I’ve been putting off calling them for 2 weeks because of my desperate and irrational fear that it can’t be fixed–what if I made a mistake in buying my own printer?  What if I can’t really do this?  I realized during those 2 weeks, staying in limbo kept me in that holding pattern of not exactly failing, but not exactly succeeding either.

Three hours later, we hung up and I still felt anxious because they couldn’t resolve the problem and couldn’t tell me what the true issue was.  They suggested I contact the help desk of Adobe Photoshop (what?).  Turns out, they’re closed on the weekend, and better yet, they don’t offer phone support for my product.  And so it goes.

I know I am in the home stretch.  This art business is what I have been dreaming of for a long time.  So why was I procrastinating on figuring this piece out?

After a short break from talking technical madness, I logged in to a chat room for Adobe and found that I needed to calibrate my monitor.  Funny how we didn’t cover that topic on the three hour call yet there it was, the simple answer.

After I thought about it, I realized this: I may get exactly what I wish for.  And even though I really want it, sometimes I just get scared of change and I self-sabotage.  

Can you relate?

I came up with a few simple thoughts on how to welcome success and how you can avoid your own case of self-sabotage:

1. Visualize what you want.  When I can actually see in my mind how I want the ending to look, I feel more comfortable when it (or something close to it) appears in my life.  Fear of the unknown is no longer an obstacle.
2. Act as if.  When I behave from the perspective that what I want is already in my life, it’s easy to incorporate it when it actually shows up.  I choose each minute of each day how to feel, why not choose what I want?
3. Ask for Help.  There’s no need to reinvent the wheel!  There are soooo many people who have already done what I’m looking for, and they are so willing to help.  Some great options that help me all of the time?  On-line forums + social media communities.
4. Understand the sacrifice you make by not winning.  What are you giving up by NOT succeeding?  For me, it was figuring out the hurdle of the monitor needing calibration to make prints that I was proud of.  There are options you are letting go of by not overcoming fear of success; identifying them can be a great motivator.
5. Let go of expectations.  I know, I know, it’s not what you want to hear, but the main idea is to hold your expectations loosely–you never know when something even better may show up.

It’s not so scary when I break it down into those simple steps.  Maybe they will help you, too.  I’d love to hear about what small step you’re taking today to handle your fear of success here.