I’ll never forget the last talent show I was in. We were at a family church camp. My then 8 year old son insisted that I play a couple songs on the guitar. At first, I resisted. You might have too if you’d only taken three lessons, knew two chords and had never sung in public before. I didn’t want to look and sound stupid in front of more than 300 campers!
But I finally said yes, after I realized that it was an opportunity to teach a valuable life lesson about taking risks.
When I got up on stage, my knees were shaking and my mouth was dry – classic symptoms of fear. Before I started playing, I explained my beginner’s status to the group. I asked them to please sing along too. And, if I couldn’t change my chords fast enough to keep singing and I’d catch up. They thought I was kidding. I wasn’t, which they soon found out. I survived and got a hearty round of applause.
As human beings and sellers we don’t step out of our comfort zones a lot. We live our life on cruise control. And then when bumps come along – which they inevitably will – we really struggle.
The truth is, the more risks we take, the better we are at handling them. We discover that we don’t die of embarrassment. We find out that people want us to succeed and cheer us on when we’re learning.
So, do something risky today. And tomorrow too. When you develop that risk-taking muscle, you become much stronger and more successful.
