Rhea Freeman is a business coach and mentor, and author of You’ve Got This, a book all about how to supercharge your business, achieve your goals, and overcome the blocks that stop you. Here, she shares tips around how to overcome common obstacles that can stop people from achieving their goals.

Blocks, obstacles, walls - whatever you want to call them, the sad truth is that they have the power to throw the best laid plans off course. It doesn’t matter how dedicated and passionate you are, sometimes ‘stuff’ just gets in the way and makes us groan, pause… or even stop. Here, I’m going to explore a few common obstacles and some ideas to help you smash through them. Because your goal deserves it.

Should you really be here?

Let’s start with that devil, Imposter Syndrome. If people are truly honest, most if not all would say they’ve experienced this from time to time. What I say to people is, first of all, have you lied to get that opportunity? If you’ve said you’re a doctor and you get invited to do an operation - you really, really should feel like an imposter because that’s exactly what you are! Surgery aside(!), if you didn’t lie, you can’t be an imposter, it just doesn’t make any sense, does it?

If you feel a bit anxious about a new opportunity, try this. Reframe the feeling as excitement (the physical feelings can be very similar!) and think ‘great, this means I’m moving into my stretch zone and expanding my comfort zone!’. The more you do it, the easier it gets. I promise. Now, if I don’t feel those pangs on ‘should I really be here?’, I don’t think I’m pushing myself enough.

What if it goes wrong?

Next up fear of failure - the block that makes us question our choices and is desperate for us to play small. There’s a self-preservation element built in here, but what our minds don’t realise is that failing in the modern world - from a business perspective at least - is not usually life or death. You don’t get that big job you pitched for? No one died. You make a fool of yourself on a stage? It’ll be a great story to tell the grandchildren.

If we really think about the realistic downside and mitigate that as best as we can, it can help. Another thing is to reframe it - it’s not failure, it's learning. Now, when things go wrong for me, I’ve trained myself to ask ‘OK, what did I learn?’ and there is always something. Lick your wounds quickly and then pick yourself back up, look for the learning, and know you’re a step closer to success.

Do you have what you need to pull this off?

Last but not least, let’s talk about lack. A lack of time, knowledge, or money are very common… and they’re not always in our head. However, what might be true is that we’re not looking for alternatives or prioritising what we should. For example - I don’t have time to reply to that person - or is it just my priorities are different because I find the time to doom scroll on TikTok?

Yes, I might lack the knowledge, but then I need to ask how I can learn/who knows more than I do and can help me… and then chase that. And money - what do I need the money for and is there another option? Maybe you want to do a course, but you don’t have the money - what other way can you learn that info (podcasts, blogs, webinars, free programmes, for example?).

You want to test a product with your audience, but you don’t have the money to invest in a flop - what else could you do? Could you presell with a realistic delivery time to get an idea of numbers and explain that if you don’t get the numbers you need, the money will be refunded? Or start with a small drop that you can afford and use it as a test? Where there’s a will, there’s usually a way…

Find Rhea's book, You've Got This, on Bloomsbury and Amazon!

Read Rhea's previous blogs on Tiny Box Company, How to grow your business by setting good goals and How to start your own business, and check out more blogs from Tiny Box Company here.