What's on the other side of fear?
Take home message
FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY
For Coaches
Is the big call, really that big? It may seem it now, but will it tomorrow? In a month? In a year? Probably not. Do it.
For Athletes
If you fail, at least fail daring greatly.
Nothing. Nothing is on the other side of fear. That’s according to Jamie Foxx as quoted in “Tools of Titans”, by Tim Ferris, (a very handy read).
Where am I going with this?
I have not written for a while. Yes, I got busy. Very busy. And it is a convenient excuse. The real reason is I got pretty scared and nervous. Petrified to the point of frozen. Safe inaction.
See, for quite a while, I had this blog and it was quite safe because no one knew about it. I casually told some close friends who would be kind and encouraging. I shared a program or template here and there. Procrastinated about layout and colours, all the time hiding safely in the vast expanse of the internet.
I worked on a few special projects such as ebooks. One contained an array of programs that I wrote for David Pocock during out time together at the Force. I thought that these would benefit coaches and athletes and that people would find them helpful. David allowed me to produce this booklet and all proceeds were donated to a charity of his choosing.
And it sat there on my site, for all to see.
I sold one.
Then David thought he would help by promoting it on Instagram. Suddenly, this little website was not invisible anymore. Traffic increased to my site, email subscriptions and social media. Whilst not out of the shadows completely as some online S&C coach’s are, there was certainly more light shining on me. How did I take this new publicity? I fled, back to the shadows and no one has heard from me since.
The purpose of BASC is to help. Help athletes, coaches, parents, anybody really who uses exercise to improve their lifestyle. The only way to help more people is for more people to know about BASC. More exposure means I can potentially help more people. I got what I wanted and it frightened me. With all these new people interested in what I had to say, what if they did not like it? I don’t think I could handle that kind of rejection.
However, like so many things that seem daunting, I had to ask - is it really? Is this really what I was afraid of? And to put it in its embarrassingly small perspective, we are talking maybe 100 new subscribers. What do I do if I reach 1,000? 10,000? (Poey has over 200k on Instagram!)
How much does fear (False Expectations Appearing Real) stop us? For me, it stopped a lot. I have not posted or written for months. In that time, I also delivered a conference to local coaches which was very well received and it has inspired me to do more. But it has required a huge (huge for me anyway) shift in my mindset.
So what if someone “unsubscribes”? They just realised I don’t have what they were looking for. Plenty of other people are finding benefit from my work. So keep going. I think health and fitness have a huge role to play in society. Given my experience, I think I have a bit to share. But I can only share it if people know. It has taken me quite a few weeks to get back on the “writing horse” so to speak, trying to remember that “your playing small does not serve the world”.
If you’re worried about failure, if I can have a go, so can you. Failure is temporary. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Look for the lesson
By the way, at the time of writing, proceeds from David’s book have reached over $6,000 to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. A great result and a tribute to David as a role model as a player and conservationist. Surely this is a sign to continue doing good work.
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Thanks again. BA.