Give your Scaredy muscle a workout

 

I’m a total scaredy cat, and I love scaring myself. I’m terrified of heights, but I recently did a 10,000 ft skydive.

I can’t sing, but I’ve wrote a song to sing at an open mic.

I’m not very funny either, but I did a stand up comedy routine last September (it did not go well!)

I’ve found doing things that’s scary in my personal life really helps go for the things that I need to do to grow my business. I’d recommend giving yourself a Scaredy Workout every now and then.

I think all business owners can benefit from exercising their Scaredy Muscle more often

 

“The fear of temporary discomfort or social pain should never be a reason to not reach for what you want.”

 

And I’ll be perfectly honest, it sucked while I was jumping out the the plane.

Also, getting up to tell jokes was not a pleasant experience for me. I was stood in a pub in Edinburgh last September, a crowd of people were sat watching a visibly sweaty Owen get up on stage to tell them jokes.

I was so nervous that I forgot my jokes twice. I told my first joke, which was a one-liner to get the crowd going:

“What does Lebanese food say when it feels guilty? I Falafel”

Get it? ‘Feel-awful’? Never mind. This was met with the same kind of groan that you get when you read out a Christmas cracker joke.

I’m not even going to say the other jokes as I’m already getting sweaty palms just reliving the experience now. The point is, there was not nearly as much laughter as I thought there would be and it was the most embarrassing 4 minutes of my life.

But, I’ve wanted to be a comedian since i was 12.

I owed it to 12 year old Owen to get up and face ridicule for my jokes. Even though it was such a nerve wracking experience, I’m so glad that I did it and wouldn’t change it for the world. (Well, I would possibly have changed the joke that I opened with)

For most people, social pain is worse than physical pain. Which I find weird.

 

This is something I noticed a few years ago. I know a handful of people who are quite proud of their ‘pain threshold’, referring to how much physical pain they can endure. (Sounds a bit sadistic to me, personally)

I think in many people’s eyes, ‘social pain’ is far worse than physical pain. That is the sort of emotional embarrassment from being singled out or ridiculed. e.g.

  • Feeling rejection from 30 potential clients saying ‘no’ when making sales calls
  • Feeling embarrassment from speaking in public and saying the wrong thing
  • The emotional defeat of putting your idea out there for it to be ridiculed

 

It’s strange, isn’t it? That some people would find physical pain somehow less objectionable to someone telling you that your idea is, in their opinion, wrong.

 

Exercise your Scardey Muscle to push your business forward

 

“The fear of temporary discomfort or social pain should never be a reason to not reach for what you want.”

 

You should give your Scardey Muscle a workout. Is there a job in your business that you don’t enjoy? Public speaking? Networking events? Sales calls?

The best way learn how to enjoy them is to do it. And then keep doing it.

When you think about it, it’s not that bad really.

When we step back and look at it, we all know that someone speaking to a group of other people isn’t that bad really. We all know that someone meeting potential business contacts at a networking event isn’t impossible. We all know that someone picking up the phone and asking if someone would like to buy their product isn’t that scary.

We can step back and look at it rationally and say “being told no on the phone isn’t that bad,”

But on an emotional level, it is still scary. But that’s okay. Any short term feelings of fear should not be a reason to not go for it. Remember;

 

“The fear of temporary discomfort or social pain should never be a reason to not reach for what you want.”

 

4 steps to give your Scaredy Muscle a workout

 

Forget any ridiculous bravado, it’s okay to be scared as it’s a natural human emotion. What’s really important is being scared and still doing it. You’re not going to get anywhere doing what you’ve always done.

Here’s a 4 steps to give your Scaredy Muscle a really good workout and reaching your goals

  1. Commit yourself before you have a chance to say ‘no’ – you’re doing it now! I bet you’re wondering what you got yourself in for?
  2. Prepare yourself – Give yourself the best chance of succeeding by researching, practicing, preparing for it
  3. What did you learn? – It’s okay if you fail, make sure you learn as much as you can for next time
  4. Commit yourself again before you have a chance to say ‘no’ – stitch yourself up again by asking for round 2!

 

Here’s my challenge to you, reader. Do yourself a favour, scare the living daylights out of yourself, really stitch yourself up by picking up the phone and asking for what you want out of life.