Fear is an amazing and powerful thing. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of looking like a complete moron in front of a large group of people. No matter how you feel about fear, it is hard to deny it exists. Most people I know fear public speaking. They would rather have a Novocain-free root canal than stand up in front of a room full of people. Not me. I have spoken to crowds of over 1,000 and while I might have had some butterflies in my stomach, I was not gripped by fear. I have also had a root canal and I will take public speaking any day of the week. I’m weird like that.
When the time arrived for me to take that first call, I was gripped with fear. Gut-wrenching, butt-clenching fear. Which really made very little rational sense. I have talked to hundreds of strangers on the phone in the past. I am an accomplished speaker. Why was I terrified to take the first call?
Well I guess I could have spent a few more days psychoanalyzing my dilemma or I could get a grip and do it. My husband was out of town. My dogs were secured. My house was quiet. It was time to take the plunge.
I did it and I bombed. Splat. The customer asked me a question and I stuttered and stammered and froze up. When I finally got off the phone it quickly rang again. This time I still stammered but just a bit less. This went on for the next 4 hours. By the end of that first day, I was OK. Not great but I had survived.
Looking back on that first day now, I have to laugh. What it all boiled down to was I was speaking with a person who wanted to order something from me, they had no idea who I was, and I would most likely never hear from them again. For this, I was nauseous.
Fear can be crippling and life changing. Life though does not stop and wait for us to get over our fears, it keeps moving and the longer we wait the more we have to catch up.
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